Baroque composers were particularly drawn to ancient heathen and Christmas themes as touched upon in the shepherd episodes of the Christmas narrative. In 18th-century Rome, relics of the great liturgical Christmas plays of the Middle Ages survived in popular shepherd and nativity plays. Every year on Christmas Eve shepherds from the surrounding countryside came to Rome to play on their bagpipes and shawms. This recording brings together concertos and cantatas associated with the events of Christmas, alternating the contemplative and the pastoral as in Corelli’s Christmas Concerto and the festive as illustrated in Stradella’s Sonata, where the trumpet becomes a symbol of the power of God.