MITTELVOX ENSEMBLE (Italy, Slovenia)

Conductor: Mateja Černic
Ester Pavlic, harp

Singers:
Anna Tulissi
Claudia Floris
Gabriella Sofia Donadio
Aleksija Antonič
Mateja Jarc
Marina Lombardi
Mirko Ferlan
Giacomo Segulia
Matej Velikonja
Massimiliano Migliorin
Andrea Palermo
Alessio Velliscig

IMMORTAL LOVE

Ildebrando Pizzetti (1880–1968), Cade la sera (Gabriele d’Annunzio)
Roberto Brisotto (1972), Epitaphium (Marco Valerio Marziale)
Marco Sofianopulo (1952–2014), Se sintis (Friulian folk song)
Marco Sofianopulo (1952–2014), Baile e Aillin (William Butler Yeats)
Lojze Lebič (1934), Poletje (Issu)
Marij Kogoj (1892–1956), Trenutek (Josip Murn Aleksandrov)
Ambrož Čopi (1973), Eno drevce mi je zraslo (Slovenian folk song)
Bruno Bettinelli (1913–2004), Tre espressioni madrigalistiche
I. Già mi trovai di maggio
II. O Jesu Dolce
III. Il bianco e dolce cigno
Luciano Berio (1925–2003), E si fussi pisci (Sicilian folk song)

Love is the feeling that distinguishes humanity for its tireless desire and search for beauty and that has always inspired and told itself through music and poetry in its many shades. Love that illuminates and resists even beyond earthly ties and finds its sublimation in other spiritual spheres.

The protagonists of our programme are the Italian and Slovenian composers of the 20th century and contemporary ones (especially those linked to our land), who through different compositional languages ​​bring to life the feeling of love, linked to nature: from the neo-madrigalistic approach to the expressionistic and modal or more traditional one, up to the search for the use of the voice with sound effects and speech.
The evocative atmosphere of the quiet of the sunset that infuses peace in Cade la sera (Pizzetti) flows into the moving delicacy of the melancholic memory of the little girl (Epitaphium, Brisotto), dedicated to every small and innocent broken life, in every place and every time. The central part is dedicated to the ballad Baile e Ailinn by Marco Sofianopulo for harp, soprano and reciting voice. In the sweet natural Irish setting the strong feeling of the two lovers triumphs over every hostile force and conquers an immortal transcendent life. Immersed in the nature that accompanies love in the spiritual cosmos, we return to the earthly sphere, where the sounds of fireflies and the fresh breeze of Summer (Lebič) echo; fleeting is the moment (Kogoj) of happiness in the soul of man, which we never know when it will resurface, like birds flying beyond the horizon. Bettinelli’s Three madrigal expressions reflect the image of youthful love, the paternal love of Jesus and finally the intensity of love that can touch death. In conclusion, the popular-inspired song cannot be missed: presented in three different dialects and languages, Friulian (Sofianopulo), Slovenian (Čopi) and Sicilian (Berio), it wants to celebrate the universal expression of love through music.

“It is this wonderful, this immortal instinct of beauty that makes us consider the earth and its spectacles as a perception, as a correspondence of Heaven. The insatiable thirst for everything that is beyond, and that life reveals, is the most vivid proof of our immortality.” (Charles Baudelaire)

The Mittelvox Ensemble is composed of singer-musicians from the Friuli Venezia Giulia region and Slovenia or musicians who are linked to this area for study reasons. Founded by director Mateja Černic in 2021, the vocal group is characterized by a diverse musical and cultural identity, which reflects the intersection and meeting of three cultures living in the border area: the members are singers with important choral experiences and musicians with different study experiences in the vocal, instrumental and conducting fields.

With the desire for a cultural and musical dialogue, the Mittelvox Ensemble presents a vast repertoire, from Gregorian to contemporary; special attention is paid to local composers, who are at the top of national and international choral production. Thanks to the synergy between different cultural identities of its members, the Mittelvox Ensemble realizes high-quality projects with original thematic paths and often collaborates with high-quality instrumentalists.

The Ensemble has presented several sacred and profane music projects including Lo spazio del sacro tra polifonia e minimalismo and Tenebrae factae sunt – meditation on the Passion of Christ for Good Friday, Da Pacem Domine, Notte di luce, Musica e parola – la natura di una nuova poesia. It has collaborated with the Nova string orchestra of Nova Gorica and with the Arrigoni Orchestra. It has participated in the concert series Musica dai giardini di San Francesco of the theater of Nova Gorica, in the Sakralni abonma sacred music concert program of Ljubljana, in the Piccolo Opera Festival, in the international festival “Città dei Gremi” in Sassari and in the International Choral Meeting of Fano. In 2024 it was a guest of the program of the Concerts Basilica of Aquileia 2024 with the first modern performance of the music of Alessandro Pavona and Girolamo Pera. This year, they performed Dietrich Buxtehude’s oratorio Membra Jesu Nostri with the participation of a cross-border baroque instrumental ensemble.

Mateja Černic graduated from the two-year course in choral conducting at the Trento Conservatory with top marks in the class of Maestro Donati. At the Fosco Corti 2021 International Competition for Choir Conductors she ranked third, winning the award for best Italian conductor. She conducted the female choir Bodeča Neža (Gorizia) with which she obtained excellent results at several national and international competitions (Vittorio Veneto, Arezzo, Neerpelt, Maasmechelen, Cork, Varna). For her artistic activity in the field of choral music she was awarded the following prizes: Zlato zrno, Zlati znak and the Mirko Špacapan prize. She is currently the director of the Mittelvox Ensemble, the Emil Komel Youth Choir (Gorizia) and collaborates as a director with the Coro del Friuli Venezia Giulia. As a chorister, she has been part of the Italian, Slovenian and international choral excellence, singing in the Tone Tomšič Choir (Ljubljana), Coro Giovanile Italiano, Arnold Schönberg chor (Vienna), Utopia & Reality, UT and Siena Cathedral Choir. She regularly holds courses in conducting and vocals, and has taught at the Guido d’Arezzo Choir Directors’ School, the Italian Choral Academy, and the Conducting School for Music Teachers in Slovenia. She also holds degrees in Renaissance and Baroque Singing, Music Education, Slovenian Language and Comparative Literature and Educational Sciences. She has taught choral exercises at the “Lucio Campiani” Conservatory in Mantua, and since 2024 she has taught choral conducting and composition at the “Fausto Torrefranca” Conservatory in Vibo Valentia.

Admission free.

Sponsored by: Municipality of Gorizia