Countertenor David Hansen features on the debut release of the new baroque ensemble Oslo Circles on which they explore the wonderful world of Henry Purcell.

Purcell only lived to be 36, but his vast catalogue includes 860 titles, among them many songs and arias. Henry Purcell’s songs are concerned with love in that very baroque way: desire and passion, pleasure and pain, loneliness and bliss all walk hand-in-hand in this music. Traditional dance-songs with refrains that really makes your dance foot move, as well as simple beautiful hymns, country dances and noble minuets, airs and jigs.

“You will probably never see or hear a better countertenor”, the Herald Sun described the young David Hansen. Based in Oslo he travels the world, performing in many of the biggest opera and concert scenes in Berlin, Vienna, Moscow, Zurich, Brussels, Amsterdam, Boston and more – with such conductors as Nicolaus Harnoncourt, Marc Minkowski, Andrea Marcon, Alessandro de Marchi, Simon Rattle, René Jacobs and Rinaldo Alessandrini.

Oslo Circles is a new baroque ensemble based in Oslo, with leading musicians on the Scandinavian and international music scene. Baroque violinist Astrid Kirschner gathers musicians in circles of different sizes, musicians you know from such ensembles as Concerto Copenhagen, B’Rock, Academia Montis Regalis, Barokkanerne, Barokksolistene, Akademie fur Alte Musik Berlin and many more. 2017 saw their international debut at Froville Festival in France, and since then they have played at Baroque & Beyond, Spazio & Musica, Wunderkammer and was awarded ‘best musical interpretation’ in Varazdin Baroque Evenings 2019.