Anne Sofie von Otter (mezzo), Svante Henryson (cello, double bass, synthesizer), Kalle Moraeus (guitar, mandolin, violin), Bengan Jansson (organ, accordion), Bengan Jansson (accordion), Markus Leoson (percussion), Ulrika Jansson (violin), Mats Rondin (cello), Ulf Forsberg (violin), Torbjörn Helander (viola)

Tormé: Chestnuts roasting on an open fire
anon.: Tomorrow Shall Be My Dancing Day
Gruber, F: Silent Night
anon.: O Jesulein süss
anon.: Il est né le divin enfant
Fauré: Noël Op. 43 No. 1
anon.: Santa Lucia
anon.: Staffansvisa & för Redelica Män
anon.: Bred dina vida vingar
Niles: I wonder as I wander
Adam: O Holy Night
Berlin, I: White Christmas
anon.: Deck the Hall / Utterns Polska
anon.: O Come, All Ye Faithful
Tegnér: Betlehems stjärna (Text: Viktor Rydberg) (Gläns över sjö och strand)
Britten: Corpus Christi Carol
anon.: Sweet was the song
Moraeus: Koppangen

"hristmas albums by opera divas hardly make an exalted genre. Usually they involve overblown arrangements, hackneyed material, and singers sight-reading music they don't particularly like and making lame attempts at singing in English. With all her integrity, Anne Sofie von Otter would never do such a thing, and she hasn't here. This disc is a personal, eclectic mix, with the mezzo-soprano sounding sincere and approachable by sticking to the lower end of her range using small-ensemble arrangements you might hear in an evening sitting around the fire. In fact, rarely has Otter sung with such warmth as in Pereic Moraeus's "Koppangen," accompanied by accordion, guitar, violin, and mandolin. Not only is her English good but she seems to connect with the language emotionally. Amid the cozy, jazzy renditions of "The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire)" and "Silent Night," there are a few lapses into eccentricity, such as an atonal string ensemble arrangement of "White Christmas" that easily could've been done by Alban Berg, and some Nordic-language forays in which Otter seems to be getting in touch with her primitivistic Viking roots. With good taste displayed elsewhere, she's allowed." - David Patrick Stearns