Conductor Riccardo Minasi: ‘There is something treacherous in the music of Mozart’

Conductor Riccardo Minasi is a son of Rome. In his childhood he was in the school desks next to the later Italian star footballer Francesco Totti, club icon of AS Roma. « The city honors him as a saint, » smiles Minasi (47). « Il Bimbo d’Orothe golden boy, is the hero of Rome. Totti is still above the pope. ”

After this childhood memory, the Italian quickly goes out a sneaky cigarette under his shoe on the sunny terrace of his Amsterdam hotel and Kucht the last remains of a flu away. It is the day before Palmpasen, and the morning after the purified baroque director – for whom Johann Sebastian Bach embodies the divine in music – his first Matthäus-Passion has led.

« I envy the Netherlands, » he says. “In Italy we hardly play the ecclesiastical Bach. Oh well, every country has its own tradition: so you have you MatthäusGermans cherish Beethovens Ninth symphony and we Italians embrace the Verdi opera Aïda. « 

Kung Fu Panda

Violist Minasi was co -founder of the well -known Italian Il Pomo d’Oro, the baroque ensemble that immediately received international prizes for his debut album with violin concerts from Antonio Vivaldi. He left the group more than a decade ago when a conductor existence shown on the horizon.

« It sounds a bit cozy, » Minasi grins. « But this work was not really my choice. It happened to me. My destination seemed to be the concertmaster, leading the orchestra. I couldn’t wish for more. Others drong it out to also try out, as director Sophie the Lint of the National Opera in Amsterdam. When she still put the artistic lines into the Opernhaus. Sophie managed to reassure me. « 

The fact that there was still a way to go after that, Minasi noticed some time later, when conductor Kent Nagano asked him to take over a rehearsal in Montreal. « The orchestra occupation turned out to be so great that it was impossible for me to get this job done from my concert master chair, at the front of the first violins. So I climbed the goat somewhat nervously and begged: » Colleagues be nice to me.  » Because I could be bucky in the first chair when a young conductor – on the nerves – was sweating his fear in my nose. Now I was damn exactly the same feeling. I was waving as Kung Fu Panda to bring that session to a successful conclusion. Fortunately, the musicians dragged me through, but with that experience there was also the insight into the need to further deepen my knowledge of the trade. Fortunately I knew enough conductors. « 

Eight years ago, after a raid, the Mozarteumorchester Salzburg Minasi chose his new chef. « A bizarre decision. » The Italian is still shaking the head in disbelief. « My repertoire did not contain any symphony of Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann, Mendelssohn and Brahms. But the musicians gave me the chance to build it. »

And that goes well minasi. He is now on the radar of large orchestras and opera houses. This summer he conducts the Mozart opera for almost two months Le Nozze di Figaro At the famous British Glyndebourne Festival. And with its regular ensemble Resonanz from Hamburg, Minasi now made seven albums. Recently their third Mozart CD, Haffner-Akademiewith soprano Anna Prohaska. Seven arias from a five operas flank on this Haffner Symphony.

Secretions

The theatrical and energetic approach of Minasi jumps into the ear. « It is not that we want to sound different if necessary, » he says. « I want to understand the intention of the notes. What character lies behind it? And we try to convey that clearly. Mozart gives me facial features and I add some makeup, mascara and lipstick to make the colors and expressions afar visible. » For Mozart – just as well for his instrumental pieces – you cannot play them without knowing his operas. « And in particular the three he made with lyricist Lorenzo da Ponte: Le Nozze di Figaro,,  » Don Giovanni and Cosi Fan Tutte. Everything that composes Mozart is all about characters and their mutual relationships. There is something insidious in his music. His sound envelops you like a comfortable jacket. But a deep emotional world unfolds under that. In the operas, the words sometimes tell us something completely different from the notes on which they have been won. « 

Minasi has been fascinating such secrets since childhood. His mother-a classic singer of Japanese descent-already sent him to a violin to a small class where the Suzuki method was taught: an immersion in music. « But I would rather play football until I was ten, » Minasi recalls. « Then I was suddenly caught. First I played with a friend Concert for two violins from Bach. And a week later we were both in the second row at a performance by The English Concert. After that music did not let us go. With a kind of religious passion and dedication we visited the music temples of Rome three evenings a week. And luckily music students were usually allowed in for free. I didn’t eat at noon, because my lunch money went to CDs. It turned out to be a turning point in my life. The enchantment that I then ‘over’ has never disappeared again.  »

Just published: Mozart album Haffner-Akademie from Anna Prohaska (soprano) and ensemble Resonanz led by Riccardo Minasi.

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