Pianist Cristian Sandin performs at the National Liberal Club on November 21 [Kaupo Kikkas]

JUST in case you haven’t clocked that Christmas is coming, London’s concert schedules are starting to tell you – starting with the first decent Messiah of the season, at Westminster Abbey where the choir joins forces with the Academy of Ancient Music and soprano Sophie Bevan for what should be a period-sensitive performance (ie, not too monumental) under Andrew Nethsingha, Nov 25. Booking via sinfoniasmithsquare.org.uk

Other signs of beckoning festivity are that The Snowman, with its deathless score by Howard Blake, starts up Nov 22 at Holborn’s Peacock Theatre, running to Jan 4: sadlerswells.com …and the first of what will be a balletic battery of Nutcrackers opens at the Royal Opera House, Nov 22-Jan 5: rbo.org.uk

• Meanwhile, we’re not quite done with Remembrance events, and one is a concert by the North London Chorus at St James Muswell Hill, Nov 22, that features Vaughan Williams’ post-war plea for peace Dona Nobis Pacem plus suitably sombre works by Finzi and Cecilia McDowell. northlondonchorus.org

• Were Elgar still in copyright he’d be doing well, with an entire programme of his music, including Sea Pictures, from the London Philharmonic Orchestra at the Festival Hall, Nov 26: southbankcentre.co.uk … and there’s another performance of Sea Pictures at Cadogan Hall, Nov 25, given by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra with a deep-contralto soloist in Jess Dandy: cadoganhall.com

• Among the best of the younger British chamber groups is the Elias Quartet, who made a name for themselves playing/recording the Beethoven String Quartets at Wigmore Hall. They’re about to launch another Beethoven cycle there. And it kicks off with concerts on Nov 23, 25 and 27. Serious listening, but you won’t be bored. wigmore-hall.org.uk

• More serious listening at the Wigmore comes Nov 26 when the indomitable (and Belsize Park resident) Angela Hewitt plays Schumann and Ravel alongside her calling-card Bach. And another star pianist, Andras Schiff, plays/directs the Age of Enlightenment Orchestra in an all-Haydn programme, Nov 27, Queen Elizabeth Hall: southbankcentre.co.uk

But also of note is a concert of Mozart Piano Concertos reduced down to quintets, played by pianist Cristian Sandrin with members of the English Chamber Orchestra at the National Liberal Club, Nov 21. The grand hall where this happens has the disorienting feel of a public urinal thanks to its Victorian tiled walls. But it was good enough for Rachmaninov, who once played if not peed there. And in the same space, Nov 24, baritone Jared Michaut and pianist/composer Louis Mander give a recital of English and American song (though you can also hear them run in the programme, Nov 22, at St Peter’s Belsize Park),  nlc.org.uk/events (alternatively, stpeterbelsizepark.org.uk)

• The violinist Fenella Humphreys makes a thing of new concertos, delivering one by composer Stephen McNeff with the London Mozart Players at St Martin-in-the-Fields, Nov 21: stmartin-in-the-fields.org

• And finally, if the whole of Schubert’s darkly lacerating song cycle Winterreise is too much to sit through, you might like to know that he originally conceived it at half the length – which is how bass Christian Fellner does it Nov 24 at Burgh House, Hampstead, alongside songs by Shostakovich. burghhouse.org.uk