Elbphilharmonie Talk with Riccardo Minasi

The unusual combination of high tension and warm Italianità that emanates from Riccardo Minasi on the conductor’s stand captivates musicians and audiences alike. The musician who was born and grew up in Rome loves triggering explosive forces that vigilant orchestras can release. At the same time, everyone can sense that he never loses sight of the great arcs.

This »Elbphilharmonie Talk« is about his extraordinary career, his work with Hamburg’s successful Ensemble Resonanz, gardening and other hobbies, his childhood in the Italian capital and, not least, the football legend Francesco Totti whose name everyone should know. But who would have guessed that for a talk with Minasi you would also have to be well versed in the world of Italian football ...

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Hamburg’s Ensemble Resonanz – our resident ensemble at the Elbphilharmonie Recital Hall since we opened – is consistently especially happy to work with Riccardo Minasi. After many years as »Artist in Residence«, the conductor has since become affiliated with this grass-roots democratically organised ensemble as its »Principal Guest Conductor«. Besides thrilling baroque compositions, the ensemble and its favourite guest at the stand jointly develop works that open up new repertoire for both parties – not only but also symphonic literature by Schubert, Brahms and, recently, Beethoven.

In this »Elbphilharmonie Talk«, Riccardo Minasi offers insights into his way of working with the ensemble. He unashamedly admits his continuing astonishment about his career path and about how far it has already brought him. As a skilled and very well established baroque violinist, he found himself on the stand, initially quite by chance and soon ever more often, without any masterplan in mind. Meanwhile, invitations from the best orchestras in the world, who want to work with the largely self-taught musician, are piling up. And Minasi delivers what everyone expects of him.

During the talk, Minasi visibly opens up. He reminisces about his childhood and youth in Rome, how he playing football with his mates in the morning even before starting school made the streets and squares of the city unsafe. How he preferred to save the couple of Lire lunch money his parents gave him to invest in buying classical records. How a friend opened his ears to music that he had never heard before. Little by little, a collection of images emerges of a world sun-drenched in music on which Riccardo Minasi looks back without nostalgia, but with a warmth for which you probably have to have been born far south of the Alps.