Chants, Chestnuts and Other Joyful Noise

Had enough of the “Messiah” or Bach’s “Christmas” Oratorio? Here is an alternative: the Christmas story pieced together out of various motets by Heinrich Schutz and Giovanni Gabrieli that capture some of the brilliant effect of high Baroque Lutheran church music. Performances are first-rate, and so is much of the music.

Recordings are rated on a scale of one star (poor), two stars (fair), three stars (good), four stars (excellent).