It’s Christmas! (2-CD) – Jonas Kaufmann

Composers: Various
Artist: Jonas Kaufmann
Number of Discs: 2
Label: Sony Masterworks
CD Release Date: November 13, 2020

In a Christmas album that is a gift itself, Jonas Kaufmann – the most acclaimed operatic tenor of our age – echoes his own holiday memories and joys with It’s Christmas!, celebrating the most festive time of the year with a unique selection of beloved songs and carols. This uniquely rich and diverse holiday album features 40 favorites that reflect the many facets of Christmas, from ancient Christian hymns to contemporary pop classics.

“When I think of Christmas, many memories spring to mind,” Kaufmann writes in his liner note. “In this I’m probably like everyone else. Christmas is the festival of contemplation and remembrance, of joy and light.”

Christmas has had a special meaning for Kaufmann ever since he landed on the front page of a Munich newspaper – at the age of eight – after describing his family’s lively, musical Christmas Eve so vividly that he won a school prize. The songs he has chosen for It’s Christmas! reflect that happy experience and the many moods and pleasures of the Christmas holidays, from grateful worship to the exhilaration of celebrating with family and friends.

His choices include a rich selection of traditional German holiday songs (“O du fröhliche,” “O Tannenbaum,” “Still, still, still”), which the young Kaufmann sang around the Christmas tree with his family every Christmas Eve. Also included are haunting English carols (“What Child is This,” “In the Bleak Midwinter”), rare intimate German-Alpine Christmas songs for voice and harp accompaniment, pop holiday tunes such as “Let It Snow,” and beloved worldwide favorites like “O Holy Night” and “Silent Night.”

Track Listing
CD 1
1 Engel haben Himmelslieder
2 Süßer die Glocken nie klingen
3 In dulci jubilo
4 Kommet, ihr Hirten
5 Tochter Zion
6 Ihr Kinderlein, kommet
7 Alle Jahre wieder
8 Was soll das bedeuten?
9 Vom Himmel hoch, o Englein, kommt!
10 Lasst uns froh und munter sein
11 Leise rieselt der Schnee
12 Morgen, Kinder, wird’s was geben
13 Es ist ein Ros entsprungen
14 Macht hoch die Tür
15 Ich steh an deiner Krippen hier
16 O du fröhliche
17 Still, still, still
18 O Heiland, reiß die Himmel auf
19 Kling, Glöckchen, klingelingeling
20 Es wird scho glei dumpa
21 Maria durch ein Dornwald ging
22 Im Woid is so staad
23 Vom Himmel hoch, da komm ich her
24 O Tannenbaum
25 Stille Nacht
26 Still, still, still

CD 2
1 Adeste, fideles / O Come, All Ye Faithful
2 Cantique de Noël / O Holy Night
3 Gesù bambino
4 Hark! The Herald Angels Sing
5 In the Bleak Midwinter
6 Nu tändas tusen juleljus
7 Entre le bœuf et l’âne gris
8 What Child Is This?
9 Silent Night
10 White Christmas
11 Jingle Bells
12 Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas
13 Winter Wonderland
14 The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire)
15 Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!
16 All I Want For Christmas Is You

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