The Classical Christmas Collection No 2: Early & Baroque music

Anyone with a mind for great literature and an ear for 17th-century music who unwraps Miguel de Cervantes' Don Quijote de la Mancha: Romances y Músicas (Alia Vox AVSA 9843A+B, two discs plus book ) will have their Christmas listening sorted in a trice. Tucked neatly inside the hard covers of a handsome 270-page book are two discs that bring us music from the period interspersed with selected readings from Cervantes' text. This inspired marriage is the brainchild of Jordi Savall, whose Hespèrion XXI relishes the multiple flavours of various romances, ballads and dances, some exotic and sultry, others spirited. Central to the enterprise is the seductive singing of Montserrat Figueras, always imaginatively supported, with every word of text (sung or spoken) presented in multiple translation and as much documentation as anyone could reasonably ask for.

A more seasonal, if less lavishly presented, collection of Renaissance Christmas Music (Deutsche Harmonia Mundi 82876 69996-2, two discs ) features an "Old German Christmas Night" with music by, among others, Eccard and Praetorius and a quality Sixties vocal line-up headed by the delectable Elly Ameling; Christmas motets and alpine Christmas carols complete the package. My only gripe is that a total timing of under 76 minutes doesn't warrant two CDs.

From the same source comes Nikolaus Harnoncourt's second recording of Handel's Messiah (82876 64070 2, two discs ), typically based on manuscript sources, hence a number of unfamiliar textures. Harnoncourt is hot on word-colouring and articulation, which means that the score's narrative element is viewed from fresh perspectives. The chorus "For unto us" is uncommonly gentle, as is befitting a birth song, and although "Hallelujah" opens lyrically, it soon builds to a rousing climax. Among the singers, the tenor Michael Schade and the bass Gerald Finley excel. Schade, in particular, brings a rare dramatic impetus to his opening "Ev'ry valley" and the recitative that precedes it.

Harnoncourt conducts the Arnold Schoenberg Choir alongside his Concentus Musicus Wien, whereas a quarter of a century earlier, Christopher Hogwood recorded his Messiah with the Academy of Ancient Music (Decca 475 6731, eight CDs ). Though similarly light in texture, Hogwood's traversal is more forthright and robust than Harnoncourt's. His singers (including Emma Kirkby and Carolyn Watkinson) are just as distinctive, and it is lucky for us that this memorable production opens a valuable eight-disc collection that also includes the oratorios Athalia, Esther and La Resurrezione, all under Hogwood's direction.

"The choral oratorio is Handel's greatest legacy," writes the critic-annotator Lindsay Kemp, which suggests that a second bargain collection of oratorios is just as valuable. Handel: Oratorios comprises nine discs, this time featuring the Monteverdi Choir and the English Baroque Soloists under Sir John Eliot Gardiner (Philips 475 6897 ). Jephtha was Handel's last oratorio, and is presented alongside Israel in Egypt, Saul and Solomon, all immaculately prepared and all treated to the clean, sensitive and lightly propulsive style that is Gardiner's hallmark. Singers include Anne Sofie von Otter, Barbara Hendricks and Nancy Argenta.

But if you'd rather stay with Handel for chamber orchestra, then Hogwood's late Eighties/early Nineties set of the complete Concerti Grossi Op 3 and Op 6 (Avie AV2065, three discs ) with the Handel and Haydn Society Orchestra offers trim reportage of the greatest baroque concertos aside from Bach. Hogwood's Op 6 refuses to rush, though that's not to say that the faster movements lack for energy or a certain dancing quality that keeps the music consistently alive.

r.cowan@independent.co.uk