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Lise Davidsen

Christmas from Norway

Decca Classics
Release Date: November 10, 2023

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Lise Davidsen thoughts on 'Christmas From Norway'
Silent Night
MET Opera - The Queen of Spades
1 O Helga Natt (Arr. Gamley & Hazell) 04:53  
2 No. 1, Weihnachten (Arr. Mackerras) 02:49  
3 Silent Night (Arr. Cullen) 04:04  
4 Jul, jul, strålande jul (Arr. Eggen) 02:37  
5 Deilig er Jorden (Arr. Eggen) 03:52  
6 Mitt hjerte alltid vanker (Arr. Eggen) 04:37  
7 Julvisa, Op. 1 No. 4 (Arr. Eggen) 03:00  
8 X. Jesu bleibet meine freunde (Arr. Hazell) 02:55  
9 No. 52, Mariä Wiegenlied 02:25  
10 Ave Maria, CG 89a (After J.S. Bach: Prelude in C Major, BWV 846) [Arr. Sabatini] 02:48  
11 No. 25, Schlafendes Jesuskind 04:01  
12 The First Noel (Arr. Henderson) 02:55  
13 O Come All Ye Faithful (Arr. Gamley & Hazell) 04:23  
14 O Holy Night (Arr. Gamley & Hazell)  
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Lise Davidsen, the most in-demand soprano in the world right now, releases her new album, ‘Christmas From Norway’ via Decca Classics out now! Hailed as “The living, breathing meteor of the current opera world” (The i Paper), Lise’s forthcoming album presents a delightful and personally-selected collection of traditional Norwegian Christmas music and classic festive favorites, spreading the warm glow of the Scandinavian Christmas spirit. Reflecting on the project, the soprano expresses her long-standing desire to create this album. Lise says, “For Scandinavians, Christmas serves as a beacon of light in the midst of a lengthy winter. Perhaps that is why we embrace it so wholeheartedly.”

‘Christmas From Norway’ is an album particularly close to Lise’s heart – the holiday season not only being the singer’s favorite time of the year but also embodying her vision for music: breaking barriers and making it accessible to all without losing the craft. “Christmas is how I got into music” she recalls. “We listened to all kinds of music: choral music, popular music, and Norwegian songs.” A time when everyone can feel welcome to experience the beauty of classical music, even if they do not understand it fully at first, as she confessed “I’ve been in that situation myself a million times, wondering what’s going on… I’ve fallen asleep. I’ve not understood things. Classical music is for everyone, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy to understand right away”.

For this album, the soprano draws inspiration from the classic albums of iconic predecessors on Decca Classics, such as Kirsten Flagstad and Birgit Nilsson. The album features beautiful arrangements drawn from the label's archive, originally made for such legendary singers as Luciano Pavarotti, Leontyne Price, and Renée Fleming.

  • Lise Davidsen - Christmas From Norway makes ABC Classic: New Releases
    Posted At: November 20, 2023 12:00 AM
    Lise Davidsen, the most in-demand soprano in the world right now, releases her new album, ‘Christmas From Norway’ via Decca Classics. Hailed as “The living, breathing meteor of the current opera world” (The i Paper), Lise’s forthcoming album presents a delightful and personally-selected collection of traditional Norwegian Christmas music and classic festive favorites, spreading the warm glow of the Scandina...
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  • Lise Davidsen's 'Christmas from Norway' is a warm hug of a disc / Classical Explorer
    Posted At: November 15, 2023 12:00 AM
    It's that time of year again, and this one is top of an ever-growing pile of Christmas discs I aim to cover prior to the BIG DAY. Lise Davidsen is one of the World's top singers today, and any release is a call for celebration. Here’s some background in video format, with Lise Davidsen in an appropriately white environment (and with coat to match) explaining her attachment to the music of Yuletide:This is a...
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  • GRAMOPHONE's '10 best young artists shaping the way that the classical music world looks, feels and sounds' list
    Posted At: April 18, 2023 12:00 AM
    Gramophone writes…..Gramophone is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year, but centenary celebrations aren’t all about looking backwards, so we felt it was important to share our excitement about artists of the younger generation who we feel are shaping – or even reshaping – the classical music world, paving the way for what the future holds for our art form.We've included our project artists in these h...
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  • Lise Davidsen - Beethoven Wagner Verdi makes NPR's 'Top 10 Classical Albums of 2021'
    Posted At: December 8, 2021 12:00 AM

    NPR's Tom Huizenga writes......The opening lines of Franz Schubert's song "An die Musik," his love letter to music from 1817, speaks of personal troubles, of being "caught in life's unruly round," and how the power of music can "lift you to a better world." Those sentiments have been hitting very close to the bone for many of us over the last year or so. Most of the albums on the list bel...
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  • Lise Davidsen's Beethoven, Verdi, Wagner is bold, encapsulating and full of drama / The Classic Review
    Posted At: April 10, 2021 12:00 AM

    The Classic Review's Leighton Jones writes......Soprano Lise Davidsen's second solo album follows on from her first highly successful release. There is nothing understated from her performances. Bold, encapsulating and full of drama, Davidsen has a distinguished voice, highly expressive and brimming with color. Turning to Beethoven, Verdi and Wagner, Davidsen chose a repertoire that suits the charact...
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  • Mild-mannered soprano; Lise Davidsen is turning heads in the opera world / NPR
    Posted At: March 25, 2021 12:00 AM

    NPR's Tom Huizenga writes.....Norwegian soprano Lise Davidsen's voice has been called one-in-a-million. A young, mild-mannered soprano from Norway with a huge voice has been turning heads in the opera world. Davidsen is an emerging star whose voice has been called one-in-a-million. It can soar like a rocket over enormous orchestras. And yet on her new album, in the Verdi aria, "Pace, pace mio Dio...
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  • What is Lise Davidsen listening to during lockdown? / GRAMOPHONE
    Posted At: April 8, 2020 12:00 AM

    What are our musicians listening to during lockdown? GRAMOPHONE asked them each to nominate one recording that speaks to them at this particular time …Gramophone's 2018 Young Artist of the Year, Soprano: Lise Davidsen's most recent release of Richard Strauss and Wagner was an Editor's Choice in June 2019. Her critically acclaimed performance as Leonore in Beethoven's Fidelio, from ...
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  • Lise Davidsen is outstanding in the Royal Opera's 'Fidelio' / Financial Times
    Posted At: March 2, 2020 12:00 AM

    In conceiving a political opera, Beethoven took the art form into new territory. It would be a generation before anybody else followed. His heartfelt cry for justice for political prisoners resonates as powerfully now as it did in his own time. This year marks Beethoven's 250th anniversary and Fidelio is a key work in arguing how relevant his music still is. The Royal Opera has stepped forwar...
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  • Lise Davidsen's DECCA debut makes 'npr:10 classical albums to usher in the next decade'
    Posted At: December 11, 2019 12:00 AM

    Traditions worth saving still need need practitioners and advocates who are willing to propel them forward. Classical music boasts a long, rich history - about 1000 years - of transformation, adaptation, tumult and triumph. From radical, boundary-bashing composers to brave and bold interpreters, the music has remained vibrantly alive even as prognosticators routinely forecast its demise. The list bel...
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  • Lise Davidsen's Wagner and Strauss makes 'npr: best debut albums of 2019'
    Posted At: December 11, 2019 12:00 AM

    Who made a big noise - or cast an intoxicating spell - with a debut album in 2019? There are many more answers to that rhetorical than we could compile here. And let's state for the record that while Lil Nas X might have had the biggest breakout year, that was on the strength of an unignorable single, much more than his mixed-bag debut EP. (Anyway, "Old Town Road," technically a 2018 release, gets it...
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  • Lise Davidsen's memorable MET debut / New York Classical Review
    Posted At: December 1, 2019 12:00 AM

    It's not often these days that a debut leads the marquee in a performance at the Metropolitan Opera. In the era of the international superstar, major companies are more likely to try to fill the house by advertising a bankable name than by enticing audiences with the promise of new talent. So when a soprano gets the PR blitz that Lise Davidsen has enjoyed for her introduction to the Met, it's hard to...
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  • Lise Davidsen makes a radiant Met Opera debut in Tchaikovsky's 'The Queen of Spades' / The New York Times
    Posted At: December 1, 2019 12:00 AM

    Deep in the somber second act of Tchaikovsky's opera "The Queen of Spades," an old countess suddenly turns curmudgeonly critic. The culture, she complains, isn't what it was when she was young, in the glory days of 18th-century Russia. "They don't know how to dance or sing," she sniffs at the new generation. "Who dances or sings today?" Well, there's at least one easy answer to that question: the sop...
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  • Self-titled debut album from dramatic soprano Lise Davidsen enters CLASSIC fM chart at #3
    Posted At: June 10, 2019 12:00 AM

    The score to Avengers: Endgame by Alan Silvestri has jumped up from No. 12 to No. 1 in this week's chart, following the film's box office success, as does Bear McCreary's score to Godzilla – King of Monsters, which jumps up 14 places to No. 5 this week. Also making a jump in the chart is new entry Lise Davidsen, the self-titled album by the up-and-coming Norwegian soprano.  Rec...
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  • Lise Davidsen is first operatic soprano to debut #1 on the UK Classical Charts / udiscovermusic.
    Posted At: June 7, 2019 12:00 AM

    Norwegian lyric dramatic soprano Lise Davidsen makes history as her debut self-titled solo album tops the Official UK Classical Artist Chart – she is the first operatic soprano to debut at No. 1. The album includes Strauss' Four Last Songs, as well as arias from Ariadne Auf Naxos, and Wagner's Tannhäuser performed with the Philharmonia Orchestra under the baton of Esa-Pekka Salonen. Davidsen s...
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