The Advent concert repertoire is unthinkable without Georg Friedrich Handel, and not just because of his «Messiah». His stately and expressive music is a festival in itself. The organ is at the heart of the Christmas concerts in Grafenegg this year. Handel’s concertos for the «queen of instruments» are no less popular or splendid than the «Messiah». The conductor of this atmospheric programme, which also shows Handel as an opera and oratorio composer, is Nikolaus Harnoncourt’s successor at Concentus Musicus, Stefan Gottfried. The evening concludes with a baroque idyll – the «Christmas Concerto» by Arcangelo Corelli.