Christmas in the North

What did Christmas sound like in the Nordic countries three hundred years ago? We travel together through winter landscapes, church bells and living Christmas traditions from Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Scotland, Poland and Northern Germany. Together with one of Norway’s foremost singers, Marianne Beate Kielland, the critically acclaimed and Spellemann-nominated Baroque ensemble Oslo Circles invites you to a warm and atmospheric Christmas concert where well-known Christmas tunes meet forgotten musical treasures. At this concert we follow Christmas music as it travelled along trade routes and coastlines around the North Sea and the Baltic. From Northern Germany’s magnificent church music to Danish courts, Swedish hymns, Norwegian folk tunes and musical traditions from all over Northern Europe, a rich and living musical landscape is woven. This is Christmas as it might have sounded at courts, in churches and in homes around the North Sea and the Baltic in the 1600s and 1700s. The music ranges from solemn chorales to dancing folk tunes and pastorales – with composers such as Dieterich Buxtehude, Georg Philipp Telemann, James Oswald and other masters, side by side with rarer gems and beautiful Christmas songs that deserve to be heard again. Marianne Beate Kielland’s characteristic warm mezzo-soprano, combined with Oslo Circles’ lively playing on historical instruments, creates a concert experience that is intimate, beautiful and full of energy. There will be room for reflection, joy and plenty of Christmas magic – all conveyed on original instruments! Whether you want to relax before the Christmas holidays, experience Baroque music at its most atmospheric, or find a very special gift for someone you love, Jul fra Nord is a concert that warms – and stays with you long after the last note has faded. Welcome!

• Marianne Beate Kielland

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