It is now very difficult to hear the phrase "By the rivers of Babylon" without being reminded of Boney M. Yet the lines from Psalm 137 also struck a chord with Lutheran church composers in the 17th century, who repeatedly set the lament of the ancient Israelites.

A selection of these made a fitting introduction to this year's York Early Music festival, whose given theme is exile and displacement. The programme by London Baroque began with four consecutive settings of the psalm by Schütz, Schein, Scheidt and Tunder. In lesser hands this might seem obscure, repetitive repertoire; yet soloists Emma Kirkby and Peter Harvey created the intimate, slow-motion effect of a flower beginning to unfurl, the harmonic language blooming outwards towards the full musical expression of Bach.

On a grander scale, the Minster played host to Handel's oratorio Israel in Egypt, one of the most lavishly ceremonial songs of exile ever conceived. The long, three-part work was a notorious failure when first presented in 1739, and Handel responded by cutting the entire first half.

The performance by Peter Seymour's Yorkshire Bach Choir took the rare option of presenting the oratorio in its unadulterated state, and proved that there can be no such thing as too much fine choral singing. There was also an incisive contribution from the excellent counter-tenor Robin Blaze, whose account of the "blotches and blains" visited on the Egyptians might not have been as virulent as the plague, but raised goosebumps nonetheless.

· Festival continues until Saturday. Box office: 01904 658338.