How would it sound if Edvard Grieg and Ole Bull were from Transylvania?"

This was one of the questions that organizer Bjørn Andor Drag and MiNensemblet pondered in their work on the albumOleBullsHits.

At Festallmenningen, OleBullsHits is performed by BIT20 Ensemble at Bergen International Festival, and audience members expecting nationalistic romantic compositions may be surprised. The program offers a collection of compositions by Ole Bull and Edvard Grieg, based on Balkan-inspired folk music. Here, Harald Sæverud's "Kjempeviseslåtten" has become "Kjempefiss," and Johannes Hanssen's "Valdresmarsj" has turned into "Våtdressmarsj." Old classics are turned upside down, shaken up – but with deep respect for the original – and emerge in new, cheerful versions with offbeat rhythms and musical exuberance. The result has been described as "enjoyable and devilishly audacious reinterpretation" of our national treasures.

Photo: Linn Heidi Stokkedal