Portrait of conductor Riccardo Minasi: "I'm not a guru"

Created: 03/24/2022, 15:53

By: Markus Thiel

Riccardo Minasi calls the Ensemble Resonanz “a crazy group full of idealists”.

© Jan Wilken

Joke, irrepressible love of music, hyper-emotionality and immense historical knowledge: all this coincides with Riccardo Minasi.

An encounter with the conducting violinist from Rome.

Just so that's clear: It's really his terrace over the roofs of Rome where parts of the video were made.

Riccardo Minasi can be seen with barbecue tongs and sausage conducting Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach's Magnificat.

It was an image and encouragement video two years ago, with which the Salzburg Mozarteum Orchestra and its Italian boss shed light on the lockdown.

Above all, however, it reveals a lot about the humor of this artist and his playful, even surprising way of dealing with music.

Minasi brings his own, very necessary color to the baroque and classical scenes.

Everything falls into place with him: wit, irrepressible love of making music, hyper-emotionality and an immense knowledge with which all these details and punchlines are historically justified.

This can be heard above all on the CDs with the Hamburger Ensemble Resonanz, which has Minasi as its permanent guest conductor.

Mozart's last three symphonies, published two years ago, fulfill an ideal: it actually sounds as if you are hearing the hits for the first time - which Minasi and the Hamburg band now want to demonstrate in Munich.

Mozart has been with him since he was born, says Minasi.

Even longer: “My mother was an opera singer.

So when I was in her stomach, I must have heard quite a bit – even if I don't remember exactly.” The Roman first became a violinist, specializing in the baroque.

As a concertmaster with well-known troupes in the industry and as a soloist.

Minasi is still working on two tracks, although he has firmly committed himself to three orchestras. The Zurich ensemble La Scintilla is also coming to Hamburg and Salzburg.

And anyone who listens to the recording of Vivaldi's "Four Seasons", which is almost noodled to death, will not shut their mouths for 40 minutes.

Minasi has had a long, ultimately ideal partnership with the Hamburg Ensemble Resonanz.

Because this chamber orchestra is actually calibrated to new music, it can approach the traditional classical repertoire without any routine.

"I always call Ensemble Resonanz a crazy group full of idealists," says Minasi.

"We discuss everything together, try out many things, discard, look for new paths - it's a never-ending process." In addition to the reference recording of the three Mozart symphonies, highly acclaimed recordings of the cello concertos by Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, Haydn's " Seven Last Words” and, last year, an interpretation of Pergolesi's “Stabat Mater” that was as astonishing in its intensity as it was harrowing.

Perhaps it all works so well precisely because Minasi, as a violinist, knows what an orchestra needs.

“I operate from a humble position.

i try to understand

And I try to convey what touches me in the respective pieces.” The fact that his style cannot be adequately described with words such as energy and emotionality is intentional.

"After all, we live in a time of simplification, of simplification, as political discussions are showing us at the moment." Only right or wrong is currently decisive, more is no longer discussed.

“Human existence is so complex.

And every score as a human work is like a sacred language that needs complexity.”

Riccardo Minasi does not see himself as a baroque coach

Is there still an Italian way of approaching Mozart?

On the one hand, Minasi believes that this is a cliché.

"Unfortunately" one can actually make out certain tendencies.

"Perhaps because our orchestras, in contrast to the Austrian and German ones, have less practice with this literature.

In return, however, we can contribute experiences that we have gained through our composers.”

Minasi is also increasingly being hired by the industry's traditional tankers, such as the Berlin Konzerthaus Orchestra, the HR Symphony Orchestra, the Roman Orchestra dell' Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia and the BR Symphony Orchestra.

Minasi doesn't see himself as a trainer from the baroque field, who makes the noble troupes fit for baroque and Viennese classical music.

“I need these different tonal languages ​​of the orchestras myself and for my understanding of music.

Besides, I don't want to be a guru or a scholar.” Each ensemble has its own nature that has to be taken into account – without any confrontation.

In general, Minasi finds that the performance practice, which is commonly referred to as "historically informed", is treated far too stereotypically.

Once he stood at the podium of a well-known orchestra (“I won't say which one”) and was shocked when he heard the first artificially generated sounds.

"We play without vibrato because we were told that it has to be like that with these pieces," Minasi received as an explanation.

He then explained to the musicians how many different gradations of vibrato and even tremolo were historically attested.

"It's like good food: You can always talk about the dosage."

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