"Christmas, the festival of love, also means to me: magic, balm for the soul and wonderful memories," Diana Damrau tells us. The famous soprano wants to share these early childhood impressions of a festival full of bliss and full of music with her listeners. This is how the double album My Christmas came into being. The recording spans the musical spectrum from popular Christmas carols to festive compositions by Handel, Mozart and Johann Sebastian Bach. Diana Damrau devotes the first part of the double album entirely to the atmospheric Christmas and art songs of her childhood. "For the first part, it was especially important to me that it be filled with the spirit of Christmas and retain a simplicity," she emphasizes. That's why children's voices from the Knabenchor Hannover accompany the singer here in new arrangements. "After the festivities at home, my family and I went to Christmas Mass. - I have always loved the music in church, to feel this infinity, not to say the heavenly on earth," Diana Damrau recalls. And so, with the second part, she takes the listener into high church spaces, filled with jubilantly festive sounds of famous baroque and classical works. The soprano is particularly pleased about a "true rarity" by the Czech composer Jan Dismas Zelenka. In addition to solo prominent instruments such as trumpet, organ and harpsichord, the NDR Radiophilharmonie under the direction of Riccardo Minasi plays as well as Richard Whilds, the NDR Vokalensemble takes over the jubilant choruses.