This charming recording combines traditional plainchant elements with a setting of the Mass to French carol tunes, arranged in Baroque polyphony by Marc-Antoine Charpentier, a prolific and intriguing composer of church music.  Although technically it belongs to the Christmas shelf, only the Gradual and Offertory are specific to the Feast of the Nativity, and a few of the carols will be familiar to most modern ears.

Still, they make an unusually bright and appealing setting.  The consort provides not one but two Kyries; and there are additional bonuses in the form of three organ solos on noel tunes and a lovely if mildly soporific "Magnificat" for men's voices, violins and continuo.

All is well and tastefully done by the Virgin Consort, directed by Kyler Brown in the acoustically felicitous setting of the Church of St. Mary the Virgin in New York.

SARAH BRYAN MILLER