E-Mail This Article to a Friend Jimmy, Cecilia, Yo-Yo . . . A busy classical-music season BY LLOYD SCHWARTZ

In January, the Boston Symphony Orchestra season really takes off, starting with Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos conducting Berlioz’s enchanting post-Christmas oratorio, L’enfance du Christ (January 8-10). The most eagerly awaited concert is surely the return of music-director designate James Levine in a fascinating program that pits two charmers — Mozart’s Paris Symphony and Dvorák’s Symphony No. 8 — against two works (one a world premiere) by American Master Elliott Carter (January 15-17). Former Cleveland Orchestra director Christoph von Dohnányi makes a welcome visit doing the Schumann Piano Concerto with Radu Lupu and Brahms’s Symphony No. 4 (January 29-31) and then, on a special Sunday matinee (February 1), leading the Brahms again and baritone Thomas Hampson in Richard Strauss songs.

The BSO also offers cellist Pieter Wispelwey, under Ton Koopman (February 5-7 and 10), pianist Peter Serkin with Herbert Blomstedt (February 23-28 and March 2); Garrick Ohlsson with Robert Spano in the Rachmaninov Third Piano Concerto (March 4-6 and 9); and pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard (March 11-13 and 16) and Wagnerian mezzo-soprano Waltraud Meier (March 18-20) — both with Edo de Waart. March blows out with Paavo Berglund conducting Britten — the Violin Concerto (with Frank Peter Zimmermann) and an arrangement of a Mahler movement — and Sibelius’s last two symphonies (March 25-27 and 30); call (617) 266-1492).

Only the FleetBoston Celebrity Series (617-482-2595) could have anyone looking forward to February. Pianist Leon Fleisher celebrates his 75th birthday playing music for both one and two hands, including Brahms waltzes and Schubert’s great B-flat Sonata, at Jordan Hall (February 7). There’s the Takács Quartet with Andreas Haefliger at Jordan Hall (February 22), Cecilia Bartoli at Symphony Hall with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment (February 27), and a Boston Marquee concert with the Borromeo String Quartet, clarinettist Richard Stolzman, and soprano Elizabeth Keusch, at Jordan Hall (February 29).

You can also get through January with Yo-Yo Ma in one of his Silk Road concerts (Symphony Hall, January 6); the St. Lawrence String Quartet (Jordan Hall, January 17); and Arthur Mitchell, legendary dancer and director of the Dance Theatre of Harlem, appearing in the Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra’s "Sounds of Peace" (Sanders Theatre, January 25). Later, there’s Yoel Levi and the Israel Philharmonic, with André Watts (March 8); the superb Met mezzo Susan Graham (March 18); and Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony (March 22).

I’m especially looking forward to Craig Smith leading Emmanuel Music in Handel’s moving final oratorio, Jephtha (January 10); delightful secular works by J.S. Bach (March 13); more concerts in the "John Harbison and His World" series (February 1, March 7); and, of course, Bach cantatas Sundays at 11:15; call (617) 536-3356.

A decade ago, David Hoose and the Cantata Singers gave great performances of Bach’s Saint Matthew Passion; now they’re doing it again (Jordan Hall, March 19 and 21). Kayo Iwama leads her chamber group of Cantata Singers in Britten’s chamber opera for children, The Little Sweep, staged by Lynn Torgove, at Roxbury Community College (February 29; call 617-267-6502).

Benjamin Zander continues his ambitious "Mahler Journey" with the Symphony No. 2 at Symphony Hall (February 18 and 22) and at Carnegie Hall (February 29). Don’t miss Zander’s pre-concert talks, either; call (617) 236-0999.

Susan Davenny Wyner’s New England String Ensemble has an intriguing program called "Orpheus and the Dance," with works by Holst, Dvorák, Piazzolla, Skalkottas (Five Greek Dances), and a world premiere by Boston Baroque music director Martin Pearlman (Wakefield First Parish Church, February 27; Sanders Theatre, February 29; call 781-224-1117). Pearlman leads Boston Baroque in a Mozart program with former BSO flutist Jacques Zoon (Jordan Hall, March 5; call 617-484-9200).

Opera Boston brings us the Boston premiere of John Adams’s Nixon in China (Cutler Majestic Theatre, March 12 and 14; call 617-451-9944). Boston Lyric Opera continues its "Italian Season" with Puccini’s familiar potboiler, Tosca, conducted by the Pops’ Keith Lockhart (Shubert Theatre, March 31 and April 2, 4, 6, 9, and 11; call 617-542-4912). New England Conservatory offers a rare chance to see Cavalli’s 17th-century mythological opera La Calisto (Cutler Majestic, January 23-25; call 617-585-1122).

Collage New Music is doing Boulez’s brilliant Le marteau sans maître (Paine Hall, January 11) and a program with soprano Susan Narucki and reciter Susan Larson (March 28; call 617-325-5200). Sarasa has Dominique Labelle and Sanford Sylvan singing Bach cantatas (Friends’ Meeting House, January 30). Boston Cecilia joins Coro Allegro for 20th-century choral masterpieces (Jordan Hall, March 28; call 617-236-4011). And the intrepid and endearing Teatro Lirico d’Europa is returning with Verdi’s La traviata (March 22-24) and Rigoletto (March 25-27) at the Cutler Majestic Theatre; call (617) 824-8000.