Ensemble minui
About
In 2016, nine orchestra musician friends founded the chamber music ensemble minui. Active in renowned orchestras such as the Carinthian Symphony Orchestra, the Slovenian National Opera and the Vienna State Opera, they devote themselves with elegance and refinement to exquisite minimalism. The art of reduction, which begins in the Biedermeier period, gains a highly virtuosic dimension with Franz Liszt and becomes salon-friendly through Arnold Schoenberg, and is continued with sensitivity by clarinettist Stefan Potzmann. His refined arrangements “leave nothing to be desired in terms of the drama and density of the original works” (Michael Gmasz, Radio Klassik Stephansdom).
A regular guest at the Liszt Festival Raiding and the Mallnitzer Musiksommer, ensemble minui has also performed at the Musikwochen Millstatt, the Radiokulturhaus Vienna, the Salzburg Festival opening celebrations, the Neuschwanstein Castle Concerts and the Stadttheater Klagenfurt. Concert tours have taken the nine musicians to Germany, Slovenia and Spain. Creative partners have included Christina Scherrer, Hans Sigl and Emmanuel Tjeknavorian.
Homogeneous and well balanced, the five strings and four wind players offer unheard-of, sonically differentiated perspectives on large-scale opera and orchestral works, reduced to what is essential for them: music. “Opera without singing, purely instrumental? It works well when the music is so singable and so full of temperament […]. And see—everything seems more transparent and closer in the reduced lineup than in the usual orchestral fullness” (Otto Paul Burkhardt, AUDIO 10/2021).
At first, the focus was mainly on arrangements of major orchestral works, but over time opera music became the great passion of ensemble minui. Their debut CD, “ACT I”, was nominated in several categories for the German Opus Klassik 2020 and was presented as “CD of the Week” by stations such as Ö1, Radio Klassik Stephansdom and rbb Berlin. Their two following albums featuring opera suites received further nominations for the Opus Klassik and the German Record Critics’ Award.
“Ensemble minui reduces complex opera scores from around 1900 to nonet dimensions and thus also surprises connoisseurs: here one hears music by Puccini, Dvořák and Strauss in a completely new way.” (Wilhelm Sinkovicz, Die Presse, 22 January 2020).
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