The beauty of Christmas through music in a concert with three tenors

Posted on December 25, 2022 by willmann

By Robert Willmann

A timeless concert from 1999 — The Three Tenors Christmas — with Luciano Pavarotti, Placido Domingo, and Jose Carreras. Pavarotti passed away in 2007, but left the world a better place through the gift of music.

http://vimeo.com/149035819

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8 Responses to The beauty of Christmas through music in a concert with three tenors

  1. Fourth and Long says:
    December 25, 2022 at 2:53 pm

    Hard to top that lineup. Thanks.

    Suffering from intense homesickness and other things I probably put $50 or more in the jukebox in my favorite Irish Bar when Christmas time came ’round many years ago. This recording was where the lion’s share went.

    God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen – Bing Crosby
    https://youtu.be/1N_ZH9xFPwU
    ————
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bing_Crosby
    As it happens, that story was pure whimsy for dramatic effect; the Associated Press had reported as early as February 1932—as would later be confirmed by both Bing himself and his biographer Charles Thompson—that it was in fact a neighbor—Valentine Hobart, circa 1910—who had named him “Bingo from Bingville” after a comic feature in the local paper called The Bingville Bugle which the young Harry liked. In time, Bingo got shortened to Bing.
    ———-

    God rest ye merry gentlemen
    Let nothing you dismay
    Remember Christ our Savior
    Was born on Christmas Day
    To save us all from Satan’s pow’r
    When we were gone astray
    Oh tidings of comfort and joy
    Comfort and joy
    Oh tidings of comfort and joy
    God rest ye merry gentlemen
    Let nothing you dismay
    Remember Christ our Savior
    Was born on Christmas Day
    To save us all from Satan’s pow’r
    When we were gone astray
    Oh tidings of comfort and joy
    Comfort and joy
    Oh tidings of comfort and joy
    In Bethlehem, in Israel
    This blessed Babe was born
    And laid within a manger
    Upon this blessed morn
    The which His Mother Mary
    Did nothing take in scorn
    Oh tidings of comfort and joy
    Comfort and joy
    Oh tidings of comfort and joy
    Fear not then, said the Angel
    Let nothing you affright
    This day is born a Savior
    Of a pure Virgin bright
    To free all those who trust in Him
    From Satan’s pow’r and might
    Oh tidings of comfort and joy
    Comfort and joy
    Oh tidings of comfort and joy
    God rest ye merry gentlemen
    Let nothing you dismay
    Remember Christ our Savior
    Was born on Christmas Day
    To save us all from Satan’s pow’r
    When we were gone astray
    Oh tidings of comfort and joy
    Comfort and joy
    Oh tidings of comfort and joy

    ————

    According to this the song goes back to the 17th century:
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/God_Rest_You_Merry,_Gentlemen

  2. Keith Harbaugh says:
    December 25, 2022 at 4:16 pm

    Thanks for the music!

    For a tour through Christmas music of the Renaissance and Baroque periods, try the following playlist:

    https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6WIWapSWYkdiM9y-a8GnC9UaDrrev9o1

    The first two videos are actually from the medieval period, and frankly are pretty simple and even boring.
    With the third video, “Christmas Music of the 15C and 16C”, things pick up.

    If you have never heard it before, I especially recommend the video titled “Praetorius – Lutheran Mass for Christmas Morning”.
    Fascinating and beautiful.

    Here is a sample, “Puer nobis nascitur” by Praetorius, from that video:
    https://youtu.be/wb9lIMxq2yE?t=1h7m35s
    What terrific music!

  3. Whitewall says:
    December 26, 2022 at 9:38 am

    The expertise of this young Latvian woman playing Bach on the pipe organ in the Riga Cathedral is riveting.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=erXG9vnN-GI

  4. jld says:
    December 26, 2022 at 11:49 am

    Not specifically for Christmas but yet…
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z40eBpbJrvU

  5. Keith Harbaugh says:
    December 27, 2022 at 9:35 pm

    A religious leader is worried about the future of Christianity in England
    (and, by extension, in all of what in my youth was called “Western Christendom”):

    Fox News: Queen’s former chaplain warns ‘multicultural, multifaith’ King Charles III threatens British monarchy.
    https://www.foxnews.com/world/queens-former-chaplain-warns-multicultural-multi-faith-king-charles-iii-threatens-british-monarchy

    • Bill Roche says:
      December 28, 2022 at 2:39 am

      Full disclosure I’m agnostic. I also disclose I believe that Christianity is largely responsible for the Renassance and Enlightenment. A Sovereign who is the protector of everything protects nothing, stands for nothing, encourages nothing. Anyway, the Monarchy died with Elizabeth. So has England. Society collapsing on itself into complete individualism is no longer a functioning society. Even libertarians know that. No defense of religion, no love for nation states, confusion over gender, how we should regard each other, and we return to the mish mash of broad cultural areas governed by what?? Samuel Hutchinson, I think, was right.

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