A Noel is a French Christmas carol, and the ones here are sung by Les Pages du CMBV (Centre Musique Baroque de Versailles), a children's choir. Their voices do not soar, but they are not the stars of the show. Instead, the album is part of a series called L'age d'or de l'orgue français, and the main attraction is organist Gaétan Jarry, and even more so, the 1710 organ at the Versailles chapel. It's a marvelous instrument, clear in all registers, lively, and bracing. The composer-organists here are largely unknown today, at least outside France, but hearing these works, the listener may understand why crowd control police had to show up for performance by the likes of Claude Balbastre (1724-1799). Jarry performs the Noels with the choir singing verses in alternation with the organ.

Trevor Pinnock is one of the world's leading exponents of historical performance practice, and this collection of Baroque keyboard favorites is one of his most successful attempts to communicate his musical values to a broad audience. These popular works are often anthologized, but seldom have they sounded as fresh and exciting as they do here. Handel's Harmonious Blacksmith and Bach's Italian Concerto are the best known of these selections, though Pinnock's playing liberates them from their use as flashy encore pieces and instead treats them as more intimate entertainments. François Couperin's magical Les baricades mistérieuses and Rameau's Gavotte Variations are also well known, and their inclusion on any disc of the harpsichord's "greatest hits" is de rigueur. Domenico Scarlatti's two Sonatas in E major are still brilliant, even at the lower tuning (A=415). The remaining works of this collection are perhaps less-widely heard, but each offers insights into both Pinnock's interpretive skills and the instrument's wealth of possibilities.