Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France

Luciano Berio would have been celebrating his 100th birthday in 2025. The composer lovingly reworked the folk music of his native country and many other cultures across the world, creating multilayered and meticulously detailed new compositions. For “Voci”, composed in 1984, he transcribed Sicilian songs for the solo viola. Love songs and lullabies, songs about work and other folk melodies sometimes appear fragmented and at other times in complete form above a delicate and tender accompaniment by the two instrumental groups. The folk melodies are vividly interspersed with musical images of the Sicilian countryside, birds and the local population.

The Lithuanian composer Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis was also inspired by folk music, but to an even greater degree by nature. In his symphonic poem “Jūra”, the elemental forces of the sea are unleashed by the orchestra. The vivid musical transformation of the composer’s impressions was without doubt influenced by his second artistic activity – Čiurlionis was also a trained artist. His musical and visual channels of expression fused to form unique synergies – during the composition of “Jūra”, he was simultaneously working on the cycle of paintings entitled “Funeral Symphony” with its vibrant blue and yellow tones.