Perfect for classical Kansas City holidays: Wonderful CDs, the symphony, ‘Amahl,’ more

There are so many new box sets for classical music lovers this year that Santa’s going to have to get a bigger bag.

There’s a monster set of 75 CDs featuring one of Germany’s finest early music groups, Mozart sonatas performed on his own fortepiano and a delightful disc of fairy tale music by Engelbert Humperdinck.

Reinhard Goebel and Musica Antiqua Köln on Archiv Production.

Reinhard Goebel and Musica Antiqua Köln were early music pioneers. Founded by Goebel in 1973, Musica Antiqua Köln always performed to the most exacting standards, and their repertoire was never the same old Baroque stuff.

Archive has just released a 75-CD set of Musica Antiqua Köln’s recordings from its founding until it disbanded in 2007. The set includes standards, like the Brandenburg Concertos, but also a lot of off-the-beaten path music by composers like Heinichen, Biber and Veracini.

They also recorded some of Telemann’s juiciest music. Often dismissed as a faceless composer who cranked out music like a machine, Telemann is being reevaluated as a composer on the level with Bach and Handel. Just listen to Goebel’s album of violin concertos by Telemann. These performances are fire, as the kids like to say. After listening to these concertos, you will never think of Telemann as Baroque Muzak.

Musica Antiqua of Cologne’s exacting standards meant they chose only the best repertoire to record. That’s why there’s not a single dud among these 75 albums. Any lover of Baroque music would be thrilled to unwrap this one.

Jean-François Paillard and the Paillard Chamber Orchestra play Bach and French Baroque Music. Warner Classics.

Another early music pioneer is Jean-François Paillard. His Paillard Chamber Orchestra made its mark on music history in 1968 by recording its slow, stately version of Pachelbel’s Canon. It became one of classical music’s all-time bestsellers and a wedding staple.

Paillard’s recordings hold up surprisingly well, as you can hear on two recently released box sets from Warner Classics. One is devoted to music by Bach and the other to the French Baroque. Both are gems.

The performances are neither sluggardly nor rushed. They are the epitome of French elegance and balance. The tempos never rev up to breakneck speed as they can with early music groups like Musica Antiqua Köln. But that’s all right. There’s something about Paillard’s cool, Gallic approach that I think is perfect for most Baroque music.

The 15-CD Bach set is full of familiar favorites, like the Brandenburg Concertos, which are played superbly. The 14-CD French box is full of discoveries and lots of rococo delights. I especially love all the trumpets and drums in works like Delalande’s Symphonies for the Suppers of the King.

Robert Levin plays Mozart’s sonatas on Mozart’s fortepiano. Sony Classical.

The fortepiano, the predecessor to our modern piano, has a unique sound all its own. While not as big and bold as the modern concert grand, it has a delicacy that seems especially suitable to the music of Mozart.

Robert Levin, one of the major figures of the early music movement, has just recorded all of Mozart’s piano sonatas on Mozart’s very own fortepiano. This might seem like a gimmick, but Robert Levin’s brand new seven- disc set from Sony Classical sheds light on these brilliant piano works.

The sound of the fortepiano is an acquired taste, and these recordings are probably best enjoyed one or two sonatas at a time. But when the mood is right, these jewel-like sonatas will cast their spell.

Humperdinck’s Incidental Music for “The Blue Bird.” Capriccio.

Belgian playwright Maurice Maeterlinck is most famous for his Symbolist play “Pelléas and Mélisande.” Another work by Maeterlinck that was incredibly popular was the play “The Blue Bird,” about a poor girl and her brother on Christmas Eve and their search for happiness. It has been made into a movie several times, including a silent version from 1910 and a joint American-Soviet production from 1976 starring Elizabeth Taylor.

Engelbert Humperdinck, who wrote an opera about two other famous children, Hansel and Gretel, wrote incidental music for “The Blue Bird.” Capriccio has just released what I think is the first-ever recording of the music, and it is absolutely charming.

Humperdinck had a way with fantasy which is beautifully expressed in “The Blue Bird.” I hear rippling of impressionism in the music, as well as flights of fantasy worthy of Rimsky-Korsakov. While this music isn’t overtly Christmassy, it certainly captures the spirit of the season.

The Kansas City Symphony with Behzod Abduraimov

There’s no better way to end a Thanksgiving weekend than with the Kansas City Symphony at Helzberg Hall. This year, guest conductor Aziz Shokhakimov will lead the orchestra in a festive program that includes the overture to Smetana’s “The Bartered Bride” and Dvořák’s Symphony No. 8, a tuneful, warmhearted work that is the musical equivalent of comfort food.

Behzod Abduraimov, artist-in-residence at Park University’s International Center for Music and winner of the 2009 London International Piano Competition, will be the soloist for Prokofiev’s technically forbidding Piano Concerto No. 2.

8 p.m. Nov. 25 and 26 and 2 p.m. Nov. 27. Helzberg Hall, Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts. $25-$95

Lyric Opera — ‘Amahl and the Night Visitors’

The Lyric Opera of Kansas City’s lovely production of “Amahl and the Night Visitors” returns for eight performances at the Michael and Ginger Frost Production Arts Building, beginning Dec. 2.

Gian Carlo Menotti’s Christmas opera about the three Wise Men and a shepherd boy who must use a crutch to walk has been enchanting audiences since it was first performed on television on Christmas Eve 1951. The Lyric’s production is especially magical with a set that looks like an illumination from a medieval manuscript and life-size puppets designed by Paul Mesner.

Like “The Nutcracker,” “Amahl” is the perfect introduction to classical music for young people. Take your children to one of Kansas City’s superb holiday programs, like “Amahl,” and they will remember it forever.

7:30 p.m. Dec. 2, 3, 9 and 10 and 2 p.m. Dec. 3, 4, 10 and 11. Michael and Ginger Frost Production Arts Building, 712 E. 18th St. $17.50-$55. 816-471-7344 or kcopera.org.

Kansas City Chorale — ‘A Christmas Carol’

Charles Bruffy always brings good cheer to Kansas City, and never more so than during the holiday season. This year he’ll be leading his Grammy-winning Kansas City Chorale in a new narrated version of Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol.” It features a gorgeous choral music score by Benedict Sheehan, a composer who writes choral music mostly for the Orthodox church in America. The score for “A Christmas Carol” includes traditional Christmas favorites, as well as Sheehan’s own music.

7:30 p.m. Dec. 2 at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, 11 E. 40th St; Dec. 3 at the 1900 Building, 1900 Shawnee Mission Parkway; Dec. 9 at Grace and Holy Trinity Cathedral, 415 W. 13th St.; 2 p.m. Dec. 11 at Liberty United Methodist Church, 1001 Sunset Ave., Liberty; and Dec. 16 at Country Club United Methodist Church, 400 W. 57th St. $20-$25. 816-444-7150 or kcchorale.org.

Midwest Trust Center — tenThing Brass Ensemble

The Midwest Trust Center will present Norwegian trumpeter Tine Thing Helseth and her 10-piece, all-female brass band, the tenThing Brass Ensemble, performing “A Feeling of Norwegian Christmas” Dec. 2 at Yardley Hall. With holiday music performed by some of the best brass players in the world, this is sure to be a festive concert.

8 p.m. Dec. 2. Yardley Hall, Johnson County Community College, 12345 College Blvd., Overland Park. 913-469-4445 or jccc.edu/midwest-trust-center.

You can reach Patrick Neas at patrickneas@kcartsbeat.com and follow his Facebook page, KC Arts Beat, at www.facebook.com/kcartsbeat.