The Christmas Album

1	Silent Night From Christmas Eve 5:31
2	Dreamer's Waltz From Sacred Road 4:35
3	What Child Is This? 4:20
4	O Come All Ye Faithful From Christmas Eve 4:47
5	Beloved From Beloved 3:42
6	It Came Upon a Midnight Clear / David Arkenstone 4:49
7	O Little Town of Bethlehem From Christmas Eve 4:07
8	In a Holy Place From Heartsounds 4:33
9	The First Noel/Christmas Eve Waltz From Christmas Eve 4:43
10	Improvisation on Friedensengel (Angel of Peace) [From Return to the Hea 1:32
11	O Holy Night From the Narada Christmas Collection 4:11
12	Variations on a Theme from Pachelbel's Canon in D Major 8:43

Barnes & Noble

Pianist David Lanz creates a warm, smooth mood album of traditional and original Christmas music. Lanz performs the opening classic "Silent Night" like a lullaby that's as delicate as a snowflake. "Dreamer's Waltz," and his liberally embellished "Variations on a Theme from Pachelbel's Canon in D" tap into the pianist's dramatic side, with sweeping phrases and rhapsodic melodies. In general, however, this CHRISTMAS ALBUM is made of silver and lace. This is the perfect music for intimate candlelit dinners or warming your toes by the fire. Several tracks were recorded live at the Guthrie Theater Christmas Concert and a few cuts feature guests guitarist Eric Tingstad, woodwind player Nancy Rumbel, and keyboard artist David Arkenstone. Carol Wright

All Music Guide

This mega popular new age pianist -- who jokingly refers to himself as a SNAG (Sensitive New Age Guy) -- has been one of Narada's core artists since the mid-80s and has one of the genre's best-selling albums of all time in 1988's Cristofori's Dream. Over the years, Lanz has contributed elegant arrangements of holiday classics to a series of label samplers, and in 1994 he put out Christmas Eve, which tied more interpretations together with brief improvisations. This release is stunning musically because he's on the mark whether he's hypnotizing with unique upper-register harmonies over tunes everyone has heard a million times ("Silent Night") or playing his own classics like the orchestral-fueled "Beloved." What's curious about this collection is what its exact point is. It's not a full compilation of his Christmas catalog (that would require his best snowy tune ever, "Rock the Herald Angels" with Paul Speer on Narada's second Christmas sampler) and it features tunes from a few of his non-holiday albums. Sure they're all beautiful and romantic and put you in the mood for snowfall and candles and warming up by the fire. But it's kind of an odd mix of greatest hits. Any true Lanz fan most likely has versions of these tunes elsewhere (though several were recorded at the Guthrie Theater Christmas Concert). So this collection is most suited for those who'd like to sample him or those who just have to have another grand instrumental Christmas CD in their pile. Jonathan Widran