#1 Christmas Album

Placido Domingo (Performer), Luciano Pavarotti (Performer), Kiri te Kanawa (Performer), Franz Gruber (Performer), Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky (Performer), Joan Sutherland (Composer) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Performer: Placido Domingo, Luciano Pavarotti, Kiri te Kanawa, Franz Gruber, Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky
• Composer: Joan Sutherland
• Audio CD (October 9, 2001)
• Number of Discs: 2
• Label: Decca
• ASIN: B00005Q6LG
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #112,707 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #25 in Music > Classical > Historical Periods > Modern, 20th, & 21st Century > Composers > Reger, Max
  • #47 in Music > Miscellaneous > Wedding Music
  • #69 in Music > Classical > Ballets & Dances > Historical Periods > Romantic (c.1820-1910)

Track Listings

Disc: 1

1. O Come, All Ye Faithful (Adeste fidelis)

2. Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht (Silent Night)

3. Ellens Gesang III ("Ave Maria"), song for voice & piano, D. 839 (Op. 52

4. Once in Royal David's City

5. Ding Dong! Merrily on High (French)

6. Joy to the World (theme by Handel)

7. Good King Wenceslas (Piae Cantiones, 1582)

8. Wiegenlied ("Guten Abend, gut Nacht"), song for voice & piano, Op. 49/4

9. In dulci jubilo, chorale setting for 4 voices, BWV 368 (BC F110)

10. Pastoral Symphony

See all 21 tracks on this disc

Disc: 2

1. Deck the Halls (Welsh)

2. The Holly and the Ivy (English)

3. Panis angelicus for tenor, organ, harp, cello & bass

4. In the Bleak Midwinter, for chorus & organ, H. 73

5. God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen (English)

6. German dance for orchestra in C major ("Die Schlittenfahrt"), K. 605/3

7. The Twelve Days of Christmas

8. With lyrics: Shepherd in the Fields Abiding

9. Tu scendi dalle stelle

10. I Saw Three Ships

See all 21 tracks on this disc

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Touch of angle, touch of heart, November 13, 2001

By 

"musicrabbit" (San Jose, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: #1 Christmas Album (Audio CD)

If you enjoy opera or choir, this is a must collection. The Choir of King's College probably knows the secret how to make the listener flying among thousands of Christmas candles. Pavarotti's opening is so mighty that remind people, this year, to be courageous and to believe (not limited from religious sense but the humanity perspective.) And his Mill Cherubini and Panis Angelicus can vibrate one's tear from the heart, reflecting to the tragedy and the war in 2001. As for the sopranos, this collection is a Jewel. Joan Sutherland's Deck The Hall and The Twelve Days of Christmas bring out the merry atmosphere of the season and cheer one's mood to celebrate. Also her Virgin's Slumber Song has so much beauty and grace . Kanawa's Ave Maria is so dramatic performed that perfectly drawn out the human's longing for love and protection. All the orchestra also have done a splendid job. The arrangement is perfect there is no dull moment from the beginning to the end.

19 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Christmas celebration for Classical Music Lovers only, November 6, 2002

By 

Neal C. Reynolds (Indianapolis, Indiana) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: #1 Christmas Album (Audio CD)

The cover of this 2 disc set features half a dozen of the great voices of our time: Pavarotti, Domingo, Joan Sutherland, Renata Tebaldi, Kiri Te Kanawa, and Leontyne Price. However, selections by these soloists comprise only 2/5 of the set, the rest being choral and orchestral works.

Nor are these fabulous voices given equal representation. Pavarotti and my personal favorite, Joan Sutherland, have four songs apiece; Price and Kanawa have three apiece; Renata Tebaldi two and only one for Placido Domingo.

However, this is basically a very good collection. The first disc is a bit on the solemn side, while the second is brighter. Pavarotti leads off the entire collection with "Adeste Fideles" and returns later on the first disc with "Mille Cherubini in Coro". His renditions of "Panis Angelicus" and "Gesu Bambino" help grace the second CD.

Joan Sutherland brightens the first disc with her "Joy To The World" and then sets the lighter mood of the second disc with "Deck The Halls" and later returns with a sprightly "Twelve Days of Christmas". She also gives us the beautiful and tender "Virgin Slumber Song". Leontyne Price gives us Schubert's "Ave Maria", "O Tannenbaum" and "O Holy Night". Kiri Te Kanawa gives us Bach/Gounod's "Ave Maria", surprises us with "White Christmas" (a very beautiful & unique interpretation), and winds up the entire set with "Mary's Boy Child". Renata Tebaldi's contributions are Brahms' "Lullaby" and "Tu Scendi Dalle Stelle". Placido Domingo's sole appearance is with the dynamic "Hosanna in Excelsis" from Lloyd Weber's Requiem.

It is a splendid feast of vocal performances. However, the choral and orchestral selections have weak spots. I was especially disappointed in the Chicago Symphony & Chorus rendition of "For Unto Us a Child Is Born", and also thought that a good rendition of the Hallelujah Chorus would've worked better. The orchestral selections did have bright spots such as "Sleigh Ride" (Mozart's, not Leroy Anderson's), Tchaikovsky's "Waltz of the Snowflakes" from the Nutcracker, and the "Skater's Waltz".

All in all, this is a collection which belongs in your Christmas Classical collection, but can't be considered an absolute essential.

25 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars This may be a good album; the marketing ploy is shameless, November 14, 2001

By 

albertatamazon (Atlanta, Georgia, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: #1 Christmas Album (Audio CD)

I have not listened specifically to this edition, but I can tell you with near absolute certainty that this is a classic example of marketing at its most shameless. This is nothing more than a reissue of "The Greatest Christmas Show on Earth", but with a different title! (Something similar was done back in 1963, when the Harry Simeone Chorale's ever-popular 1958 LP, "Sing We Now of Christmas", was retitled and re-released as "The Little Drummer Boy"--its current CD title--, but at least the advertising there seemed slightly more honest.)

Everything on "The #1 Christmas Album" is exactly the same as on "The Greatest Christmas Show on Earth", right down to the order of the musical selections on the album. Only the cover design is different. Decca/London apparently believes that it can fool its customers into thinking that they are buying another album if they simply change the title. Of course, the album itself is reasonably good, though not on the level of most of my favorite Christmas albums, not even the now-deleted RCA Victor "Christmas Treasures", a collection culled from RCA Victor's Living Stereo series. The offense lies in the marketing gimmick,something I have never seen in all my years of avid CD buying. This is worse than all those "collections" which just rehash old material--at least each collection is a newly organized album.