Baroque Christmas with Oslo Circles

Festive, lyrical and beautiful, but also energetic and virtuosic when the baroque ensemble Oslo Circles, soprano Birgitte Christensen and recorder soloist Caroline E. Dahl bring out both well-known and less common Christmas compositions by Corelli, Handel, Bach, Sammartini, Vivaldi, Scarlatti and Praetorius.

If you want a slightly different experience in the run-up to Christmas, this is the perfect opportunity: one of the country's foremost ensembles and an acclaimed soprano put together a complete Christmas programme with some of the greatest composers from the 17th and 18th centuries. Giuseppe Torelli, George Frideric Handel, Johann Sebastian Bach, Giuseppe Sammartini, Antonio Vivaldi, Alessandro Scarlatti and Michael Praetorius all wrote works suitable for performance during the festive season. Here you get a beautiful cross-section of the composers' timeless compositions performed by an ensemble and a soloist with rare communication skills. Imagine that music from the Baroque era can appear so fresh and contemporary!

Baroque ensemble Oslo Circles was founded in 2015 by baroque violinist Astrid Kirschner, and she is joined by leading musicians from the Scandinavian and international baroque community. With curiosity and passion, the musicians blow the dust off the old scores and show how modern baroque music can be. The musicians can also be found in other international baroque groups such as Concerto Copenhagen, B'Rock, Academia Montis Regalis, Barokkanerne, Barokksolistene and Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin.

Birgitte Christensen is educated at the Norwegian Academy of Music. She has worked at the Innsbruck Opera and has visited opera houses and festivals such as Dresdner Staatsoper, Staastoper Berlin, Komische Oper, Berlin, Staatsoper Stuttgart, Opernhaus Zürich, Opera de Versailles, Theater an der Wien, Opera National de Paris and Teatre Municipal Santiago. At the Oslo Opera she has sung a number of leading roles that have been very well received by the media: Cleopatra in Julius Caesar, Poppea in Poppea's Coronation, Rosalinde in The Bat, Elisabetta in Don Carlos, Donna Anna in Don Giovanni, and she has been a soloist in many concerts. She is also an active international performer - she has sung at many festivals and concert halls such as Elbfilharmonie Hamburg, Philharmonie de Paris and Konzerthaus Berlin.

Caroline Eidsten Dahl, recorder player, is known for her involvement in a number of ensembles. She is a founding member of the Woodpeckers Recorder Quartet, Ensemble C4 and Ensemble Freithoff, among others. With a special interest in promoting Norwegian music, she has commissioned and performed several new works for her instrument, both solo and chamber music. Caroline has released five solo CDs on LAWO Classics and is involved in several chamber music releases, all of which have received outstanding reviews both nationally and internationally. As a versatile performer, Caroline is in demand and plays with various ensembles and in musical projects with a wide range of repertoire.

Concert Introduction