HOLIDAY CLASSICAL | Pegasus Early Music's 'A Baroque Noel' 

Christmas is best celebrated with friends and with music. Pegasus Early Music offers lots of both in its "Baroque Noel" this Sunday afternoon, a concert of seasonal 17th-century gems brought to life by a full Baroque choir and orchestra. The friends include many faces and voices familiar to Pegasus fans, and this concert also includes a bona fide early-music superstar in lutenist and conductor Paul O'Dette, who was just nominated for his ninth Grammy. O'Dette will conduct Marc-Antoine Charpentier's "Messe de Minuit pour Noël" and Vivaldi's "Magnificat" — two off-the-beaten-path but joyful choral works — and solo in a Vivaldi mandolino concerto. There's also a Vivaldi oboe concerto with soloist Geoffrey Burgess, and even a French Christmas carol sing-along inspired by the Charpentier Mass. "Composers like Charpentier and Vivaldi wrote some of their best music for Christmas celebrations," Pegasus Artistic Director Deborah Fox says. "This concert will be a great experience for the whole family, with familiar tunes played by world-class musicians."

Pegasus Early Music presents "A Baroque Noel" on Sunday, December 15, 4 p.m. at Hochstein Performance Hall, 50 North Plymouth Avenue. Pre-concert talk at 3:15 p.m. $28 general admission; seniors $22; students $10; grades 3-12 admitted free). 703-3990, Tickets also available at Parkleigh. pegasusearlymusic.org.