Find the finest classical in a box

Of the boxed bounty released this year, here are several collections I recommend without hesitation. May they provide comparable cheer to the classical music lovers on your holiday shopping list.

BERNSTEIN: "The Symphony Edition" (Sony, $150)

Sony has repackaged its Bernstein catalog in every conceivable way for the digital era. This latest reincarnation is so handsomely presented that even collectors who own all or most of the symphonies this iconic American musician recorded for Columbia from 1953 to 1976 will be tempted to seek them out. Sony has packed the 60 CDs into a hefty box the size of Bernstein's famous LP set of the nine Mahler symphonies. Illuminating essays add to the attraction. Priced at only $2.50 per disc, it's the boxed-set bargain of the year.

PÄRT: "Tabula Rasa," other works; Gidon Kremer, violin; Staatsorchester Stuttgart, Dennis Russell Davies, conductor (ECM, $18)

ECM put Arvo Pärt on the musical map in 1984, when these definitive performances of his luminous minimalist classics were first released. To mark the great Estonian composer's 75th birthday, ECM has reissued them as a hardcover book containing a CD, manuscript and study scores, essays and photos. Pärt's spare, otherworldly music seems particularly appropriate to a season of spiritual reflection.

DVORÁK: String Quartets Nos. 10, 11, 13, 14; Emerson String Quartet (DG, $36)

There's a wealth of open-hearted melody here, which the Emerson gathers in a vibrantly dramatic, warmly lyrical embrace as it traverses four of the Czech master's greatest string quartets and two other chamber works.

To celebrate the great German baritone's 85th birthday, Arthaus has released a two-DVD album containing his landmark performances of Schubert song cycles. It's worth the price of admission for "Winterreise" (Berlin, 1979), which finds the singer and pianist Alfred Brendel inspiring each other to delve ever deeper into the cycle's inner meanings. "Die Schone Mullerin," recorded live in 1991, betrays diminished vocal powers but heightened interpretive mastery.

BACH: Sacred Cantatas; Monteverdi Choir and English Baroque Soloists (Soli Deo Gloria, 27 two-CD sets, $35 each)

With Volume 27, conductor John Eliot Gardiner and his period forces come to the end of their series of Bach cantatas derived from live performances at various European churches in 2000. Some performances are more inspired than others, but the spontaneity and commitment the musicians bring more than compensate.

"The Forgotten Kingdom"; La Capella Reial de Catalunya and Hesperion XXI (Alia Vox, $75)

The fifth book-CD early-music exploration undertaken by viol virtuoso-director Jordi Savall and his period performers is their best yet: a fascinating journey encompassing nearly four hours of music and readings from the period known as the Albigensian Crusade, the Catholic Church's 13th-century drive to eradicate the Cathar sect. The 560-page book -- housing essays, paintings, illustrations and three CDs -- is a work of art, while the performances take one back 800 years with remarkable immediacy.