By Nestor CASTIGLIONE

As Christmas looms ever nearer, performances of sacred and secular music inspired by the holiday proliferate accordingly. Two of the region’s finest chamber music organizations – Dilijan Chamber Series and Salastina Music Society – will be devoting programs this weekend to performances of the former.

Across three days and in just as many venues, Salastina Music Society will be performing Handel’s “Messiah” with judicious application of historical informed research. A work popularly associated with large choirs and public spectacle, Salastina will instead pare down the forces to a single player per part – an ensemble size that Baroque-era audiences, because of limitations that existed then, were familiar with. The vocal quartet consisting of Liv Redpath (soprano), Karin Mushegain (mezzo-soprano), Jon Lee Keenan (tenor) and Michael Aiello (baritone) will be doing double duty, singing not only the solo arias but also the work’s choral numbers as well.

Friday audiences for the Salastina’s “Messiah” will also be treated to choreography by Grete Gryzwana, a specialist in setting dance to sacred music.

Sunday will also have Dilijan Chamber Series presenting a musical tête à tête between a pair of composers whose work was deeply informed by their faith: Bach and Komitas.

A selection of the latter’s vocal music will serve as the centerpiece of a program bookended by Bach’s Chaconne from his “Partita No. 2 in D minor for solo violin” and a performance of the entire work with the addition of choir. Violinist Movses Pogossian, who recently recorded all of Bach’s sonatas and partitas, will be the featured performer. He’ll be joined by pianist Steven Vanhauwaert, soprano Shoushik Barsoumian and the Lark Choir.

Salastina Music Society’s performances of “Messiah” begin this Friday, Dec. 16 at Pasadena City College’s Westerbeck Hall at 8 p.m. It will be followed by performances on Saturday and Sunday at Thayer Hall at the Colburn School in Downtown Los Angeles and the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Beverly Hills. To obtain tickets and more information, please visit the Salastina’s website at www.salastina.org.

Dilijan Chamber Series’ program of Bach and Komitas will take place at the Colburn School’s Zipper Hall on Sunday, Dec. 18 at 3 p.m. To purchase tickets and obtain more information, please visit the Dilijan website at www.dilijan.larkmusicalsociety.com.

  Nestor CASTIGLIONE