Eclipse, five players, all but one from Iberia or Latin America, advertised a Christmas Fiesta. Fiesta? Certainly. Christmas? Not really. But the presence of Catalan dancer Mariona Adell Castells added more than a little sparkle.

The source of much of their music was a Madrid guitar tutor of 1677, Luz y Norte Musical (Light & Guiding Star). The most eloquent of its several dances was Xacaras, evoking the chilliest winter imaginable. But there was plenty of warmth too, notably in a breezy Tarantela.

We were reminded that Moorish/Muslim/Jewish strands fused in Spain into the national bloodstream, notably by the Andalucian melancholy of viol with guitar. But Layil Barr’s virtuoso recorders, Jorge Bravo’s flamenco guitar and Joy Smith’s harps produced plenty of balancing fire – not forgetting Miss Castells.

One of the great ironies of our Christmas, foisted on us by the Victorians, is that we sing forever about Jesus’s birth on a cold winter’s night, rather than the reality of sultry Bethlehem. Perhaps winter is symbolic of a hostile world.

The septet Joglaresa’s folk-style In Hoary Winter’s Night perpetuated the myth. But their programme also carried us back to when “folk” and “classical” were one and the same. Mediaeval songs like Adam Lay Y-bownden, Lullay My Child, and Blow Northerne Wynd, come straight from the fountainhead of English melody, and were authentically reinforced here by folk – read “mediaeval” – harmonies.

There were succulent Irish Christmas songs, too, a jazzy version of the plainsong Puer Natus with bagpipes, even a warming Shetland reel, and a timely reminder of the huge debt we owe to John Playford’s 17th-century collection of tunes. Jean Kelly’s cláirseach (Irish harp) and Jim O’Toole’s fleet fiddle added special colours to this truly refreshing evening.