In this miscellaneous programme, part of York Early Music Christmas festival, London Baroque exercised judicious control of vibrato, displayed a honey-toned texture and perfect intonation. The blend of the two violinists Ingrid Seifert and Richard Gwilt demonstrated an innate understanding of the music's rhetorical properties. This was tastefully underpinned by cellist Charles Medlam, especially in the slow movements of a Trio Sonata in F major by Handel.

In Vivaldi's Trio Sonata in D minor, Medlam was magnificent, by turns abrasive and suave, while the violinists ably switched between sincere loveliness and agility. A chamber arrangement of a JS Bach organ sonata seemed tailor-made for them, and its astonishing fizz of complexity contrasted neatly with a lyrical and expansive cello sonata by Vivaldi.

The sonatas were interspersed with two Handelian motets and a Christmas cantata by Alessandro Scarlatti. Lynne Dawson - standing in for Emma Kirby, who had flu - gave a declamatory performance of Handel's Roman motet Salve Regina. Her radiant and full-toned voice brought some sexiness to the work.

It remains a moot point whether or not Handel composed the Gloria recently attributed to him. Regardless of its origin, it is a taxing vehicle for even ambitious professional sopranos. Dawson's operatic and dynamically shaded approach to it was a notably assertive and well-rounded interpretation.

The introduction of Scarlatti's O Di Bethlemme gorgeously evoked the shepherds abiding in the field watching over their flock by night. Its text conveys an Arcadian nativity, and the violins gently imitate bagpipes in a manner that harks back to the Roman Pifa tradition that Handel doubtless recalled when composing Messiah.

It is not often that Handel is upstaged by one of his contemporaries in a modern-day concert, yet Lynne Dawson and London Baroque's promotion of Scarlatti's music was wonderful to experience.