Folklorissimo — Visiting the Mezzo Ensemble

Folk songs and popular melodies are born beyond concert halls. They are passed from mouth to mouth, changing over time while preserving a living connection between generations. In every era, composers have returned again and again to this inexhaustible source of inspiration, seeing in it the embodiment of national identity and collective memory. They created new arrangements, reimagined familiar tunes, and brought them from the streets, the home circle, and folk tradition onto the pages of scores and the concert stage.

This program traces the remarkable journey of well-known melodies originating from different countries and eras. Among them is a Spanish romance that was embodied in a work by Renaissance composer Alonso Mudarra and preserved in the Ladino tradition, taking on a new sound in the interpretation of composer Yonatan Keren (Israel–Switzerland); Scottish and Irish songs arranged by Beethoven; Yesterday by The Beatles in Luciano Berio’s version; Bach chorales based on folk songs, as well as one of Bach’s sonatas. Alongside these, folk songs, dances, and traditional melodies will be performed—works that have received ever-new artistic interpretations over the centuries.

The Mezzo Ensemble invites listeners to witness the ongoing dialogue between folklore and professional art—a dialogue in which memory merges with creative reinterpretation, and tradition becomes a source of new discoveries.

For all concerts by the Mezzo Ensemble