Here’s the best classical Christmas music from Bach to Tchaikovsky that will get you ready for the holiday season
Enough of this “Ramones” and “John Lennon” nonsense—bring back real music! Here’s to the era when the only thing “shredding” was the tip of a composer’s pencil flowing across his parchment staff, when the best Christmas songs were heavy on orchestral suites rather than punk drumming beats. If you frequent the city’s best music stores during holiday season on the prowl for sheet music and violin frogs (only real heads will know!), you’ll find what you need right here. Whether you’re searching for gifts for music lovers or heading to the city’s best Christmas concerts this season, cue up our playlist of the best classical Christmas songs and “rock out” in style.
Classical Christmas songs playlist
Best classical Christmas music
Photograph: Courtesy CC/Wikimedia/Elias Gottlob Haussmann
1. “Christmas Oratorio” by J.S. Bach
Though over a hundred years passed between when this piece was first performed near the end of Bach’s career in 1734 and the next recorded airing in the mid-19th-century, the Oratorio has become a staple of classical music during the holidays. The six-part piece follows the birth of Jesus and the first visit from the shepherds through the Epiphany when the magi bring gifts to the holy baby.
Photograph: Courtesy CC/Wikimedia/Elias Gottlob Haussmann
Photograph: Courtesy CC/Wikimedia/Carlos yo
2. “Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy” by Tchaikovsky
Even if you have never seen Tchaikovsky’s most famed ballet, this song should capture your imagination, as the prima ballerina (playing the part of the Sugar Plum) brings Clara, the young girl who is given the Nutcracker Doll, into a fantastical world. The sounds of the celesta—an instrument that looks like a small upright piano—sounds almost like a softer, more playful version of the traditional handbells that fill many churches around the holidays.
Photograph: Courtesy CC/Wikimedia/Carlos yo
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Photograph: Courtesy CC/Wikimedia/Attributed to Balthasar Denner – National Portrait Gallery
3. “Messiah” by George Frideric Handel
Baroque composer Handel’s oratorio Messiah is performed in full by many orchestras for the Christmas season, but even if you’ve missed hearing the work in full, you’ve certainly heard the “Hallelujah” chorus. The joyful, operatic refrain is so synonymous with celebration it’s become shorthand in plenty of films and television for feelings of jubilance.
Photograph: Courtesy CC/Wikimedia/Attributed to Balthasar Denner – National Portrait Gallery
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4. “Sleigh Ride from Three German Dances” by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
It’s hard to deny the seasonal aptness of the third of Mozart’s Three German Dances, especially when the sleigh bells come in. It is said that the composer wrote this song to mimic the sensation of going up and down the snow-covered hills on an 18th century sleigh, which is about as idyllic a winter wonderland as any.
Photograph: Courtesy CC/Wikimedia/Barbara Krafft
Photograph: Courtesy CC/Wikimedia/Rodrigo Fernández
5. “Waltz of the Flowers from the Nutcracker” by Tchaikovsky
After the turmoil of the earlier portion of the ballet, when the Nutcracker battles the Mouse King, this tranquil song seems to bring to life the experience of a beautiful sunrise after a night’s storm and a renewed sense of peace and happiness.
Photograph: Courtesy CC/Wikimedia/Rodrigo Fernández
Photograph: Courtesy CC/Wikimedia/Appaloosa
6. “Magnificat” by J. S. Bach
Though Bach is often seen as a more somber composer, this uplifting orchestral masterpiece serves as the music for a Latin liturgy centered around the portion of the Gospel of Luke, in which the Virgin Mary is visited by an angel telling her that she will give birth to Jesus. The twelve-movement baroque composition was expanded by the composer to include Christmas hymns.
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Photograph: Courtesy CC/Wikimedia/Karl Reutlinger
7. “L’adieu des bergers (The Shepherds’ Farewell)” by Hector Berlioz
Though this song takes place shortly after Christmas, when the shepherds bid the Holy Family farewell as they flee from the evil King Herod to Egypt, this number from the 19th century ontario L’enfance du Christ by the French composer Berlioz brings a lightness to this dark moment in the baby Jesus’ story.
Photograph: Courtesy CC/Wikimedia/Karl Reutlinger
8. “There is No Rose of Such Virtue” by Anon
This magnificent carol dates back to 15th century England, making it one of the oldest Christmas songs still performed today. The lyrics praise Mary as a rose with virtue beyond all others, “For in this rose contained was heaven and earth in little space.”
Photograph: Courtesy CC/Wikimedia/Ralf Lotys (Sicherlich)
9. “Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben” by J.S. Bach
Though this song is more frequently associated with spring, Bach wrote it in celebration of Advent, the season before Christmas when churches celebrate the coming of the birth of Christ. The song was later often used to celebrate Mary in general.
Photograph: Courtesy CC/Wikimedia/Ralf Lotys (Sicherlich)
10. “Parade of the Wooden Soldiers” by Leon Jessel
Like Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker, this jaunty 19th century march is about toys being brought to life. It is particularly popular here in America where it has become a staple of the Rockettes’ Christmas Spectacular and a favorite of the Boston Pops.
11. “A Carol Symphony” by Victor Hely-Hutchinson
Written by British composer Hely-Hutchinson in 1929, when he was just 28 years old, this symphony brings four movements centered around classic Christmas carols: “Oh Come All Ye Faithful,” “God Rest Ye Merry Gentleman,” “The First Noel” and “Here We Come A-wassailing.” Listen carefully and you might hear undertones of the Coventry Carol in the third part as well.
12. “A Ceremony of Carols” by Benjamin Britten
Don’t be fooled by the Middle English words of this awe-worthy choral piece: Britten wrote the music in 1942. Using select portions of The English Galaxy of Shorter Poems for his text, Britten created an eleven-movement cantata worthy of the ages.
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13. “In Terra Pax” by Gerald Finzi
Another intricate choral piece by a 20th-century British composer, Finzi skillfully brought together words by British poet laureate Robert Bridges and the story of Jesus’ birth in the Gospel of Luke for “In Terra Pax.”
Photograph: Courtesy CC/Wikimedia/Franz Hanfstaengl
14. “Weihnachtsbaum (Christmas Tree)” by Franz Liszt
Written for his granddaughter while the composer was living in Rome, this collection of 12 songs for the piano is not the best known suite by the prolific Hungarian composer. Yet, the tranquil arrangements of pre-existing hymns and carols, and the addition of entirely original compositions, make it a thoughtful reflection on the holiday.
Photograph: Courtesy CC/Wikimedia/Franz Hanfstaengl
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15. “Coventry Carol” by Anon
Before Christmas was the commercial powerhouse it is today, churches spent a fair amount of time drumming up the drama of King Herrod’s obsession with finding and killing the baby Jesus. This early-16th-century song depicting the massacre of the innocents is an example of this, and is appropriately haunting.
Photograph: Courtesy CC/Wikimedia/Richard Gerstl
16. “Weihnachtsmusik (Christmas Music)” by Arnold Schoenberg
Austrian composer Schoenberg arranged this version of the 16th century Christmas hymn “Es ist ein Ros entsprungen” (Lo, How a Rose E’re Blooming) in the early 20th century for a chamber group. When the song adds moments of “Good King Wenceslas” and other well known Christmas carols, the dynamic quality of Schoenberg’s expressionist composition skills is revealed.
Photograph: Courtesy CC/Wikimedia/Richard Gerstl
17. “Troika” by Sergei Prokofiev
Prokofiev’s seasonal, joyful piece begins slowly and then quickens its tempo, resembling a brisk winter ride upon the piece’s titular three-horse sleigh. The composition is part of Lieutenant Kijé, an orchestral suite written for a film in the very first days of sound cinema.
18. “Adeste Fideles (Oh Come All Ye Faithful)”
Though the exact authorship is often disputed, with everyone from a Portuguese King to (more commonly) a Scottish Jacobite living in exile, “Adeste Fideles” has become one of the best known Christmas hymns around the world.
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19. “Hansel and Gretel: Dream Pantomime” by Engelbert Humperdinck
When this crowd-pleasing opera based on the Brothers Grimm fairytale was first performed in December 1893 (conducted by famed composer Richard Strauss), the music became forever connected with Christmas. It seems fitting that a magical tale of children and candy should live on in today’s rather secular version of the holiday filled with sugary treats and toys.
20. “O Sanctissima (O Most Holy)”
Another hymn dedicated to the Virgin Mary, “O Sanctissima” dates back to the 18th century. Performed originally on feast days celebrating Mary, the song is now a standard for orchestras and classical chamber groups around the holiday season.
21. “O Come, O Come Emmanuel”
While the original Latin text for this hymn would not be written until the 1700s, the music itself likely dates back to 15th century France. The lyrics verge on mournful as they depict a world before Jesus’s birth.
