Christmas Concert
Christian Øland
Oslo Filharmoniske Kor

This year’s Christmas concerts will be hosted by Herborg Kråkevik, known from theatre and television series. Soprano Elisabeth Teige is the soloist in Agnus Dei and Julsång. This year’s programme also includes a premiere, as you will hear Herman Vogt’s work Let My Future Radiant Shine for the first time. These concerts also mark choir director Simon Halsey’s first Christmas concerts with the Oslo Philharmonic Choir.

As she has done for more than ten years, our own Åshild Breie Nyhus is the soloist on nyckelharpa in Det hev ei rose sprunge, and, as tradition dictates, we conclude this year’s concert by singing Deilig er jorden together.

Herman Vogt on Let My Future Radiant Shine

The beautiful poem Hymn by Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849) provides the text for the work Let My Future Radiant Shine. In the poem, Poe addresses Mary, the mother of Jesus, directly, with a plea for support. Poe himself lived a life marked by poverty and considerable hardship, which the poem partly reflects. It nevertheless concludes with a beautiful hope for the future: “Let my Future radiant shine – With sweet hopes of thee and thine!” In the music, this sense of hope for the future is allowed to unfold fully towards the end. The work was commissioned by the Oslo Philharmonic for this year’s Christmas concert.