(Photo: Patrick McMullan (Weeknd); Courtesy of the Artist (Goulding); Greg Williams/Studiocanal/PA (Legend); Andrew Eccles (dance))

pop1. Listen to Ellie Goulding’s DeliriumHeady stuff. Interscope/Cherrytree. British singer Ellie Goulding has one of the most distinctive voices around, as husky as it is ethereal, a cross between Rod Stewart and Tinkerbell. Her new album of sleek, soulful pop is sure to make her a household name Stateside. lindsay zoladzmovies2. See LegendDouble trouble. In theaters. One of the world’s best and least-intelligible film actors, Tom Hardy, gets to yowl and mumble back and forth at himself as the notorious twin English gangsters Ronnie and Reggie Kray in Legend. The Yank Brian Helgeland’s (Mystic River, Payback) depiction of the pair in their mod 1960s London prime is fairly rollicking and very bloody. david edelsteinart3. See Matthew Weinstein’s E LobroOne fabulous fish. Jacob Lewis Gallery, through December 12. Weinstein, the underground love of numerous artists, has unveiled a new video of a sexy tangerine koi swimming through digitized miasmas of opalescent space, ever winding at us like some otherworldly deity. Accompanying paintings give us ravishing starbursts that seem to emanate from the artist’s own subterranean consciousness.jerry saltzdance4. See Alvin Ailey American Dance TheaterMeaning behind the movement. New York City Center, December 2 through January 3. Since taking over as artistic director in 2011, Robert Battle, an insightful choreographer, hasn’t premiered a work of his own; that changes this season with his powerful new Awakening, plus the company debut of No Longer Silent, driven by Erwin Schulhoff’s dynamic score and darkened by the composer’s life story (he was murdered under the Nazis).rebecca milzofftheater5. See Eduardo Hernandez in On Your Feet!Shake your body. Marquis Theatre. There’s usually something terrifying about child performers, but 9-year-old America’s Got Talent semifinalist Eduardo Hernandez is so adorable you hardly notice. Among other feats of larceny, he steals “Conga”—the Act One finale of the new Gloria Estefan bio-musical—with his astonishing footwork and goofy excitement.jesse greenbooks6. Read Kevin Barry’s BeatleboneFantastical and fantastic. Doubleday. Barry’s first novel, City of Bohane, was a dystopia starring homicidal hipsters; his second, a literary fan-fiction fantasia, is even riskier. Two years before his death, John Lennon faces down writer’s block and middle age by journeying to his own private island. Talking seals and giant eggs make appearances; primal-scream sessions spin out of control; the specters of his mother and mortality loom. A gloriously weird addition to the Beatlemania canon.boris kachkaNEW MUSIC/DANCE7. See Concentric PathsWith the composer at the piano and podium. New York City Center, November 20 through 22. No matter how wild, complex, and colorful the music of Thomas Adès gets, it always whirls around a powerful spine of rhythm, which makes it magnetic for choreographers. At the White Light Festival, four will field dozens of dancers in a program that ranges from chamber music to the huge orchestral piece Polaris.justin davidsontv8. Watch Shining a LightPutting the news center stage. A&E, FYI, History, H2, Lifetime, and LMN,November 20 at 8 p.m. This multi-network simulcast—a response to the racially inflected violence in Charleston, Ferguson, and Baltimore—is the most ambitious socially themed TV concert in a long time, featuring ­duets by performers of different ethnicities expressing musically the idea of dialogue about the country’s primal wound. The lineup includes Tori Kelly, John Legend, Miguel, Pink, Jill Scott, Ed Sheeran, Sia, Bruce Springsteen, Sting, and Pharrell Williams. matt zoller seitzpop9. See The WeekndWorth it. Barclays Center, November 18 and 19. The lasciviously romantic crooner Abel Tesfaye is having a huge year: His infectious “Can’t Feel My Face” dominated radio all summer, and “The Hills,” his sonically decadent ode to the drunken booty call, is currently enjoying a long reign atop the Billboard “Hot 100.” His latest album showcases a newfound ambition and vision, and his current live show is likely to do the same.l.z.art10. See Isamu NoguchiZen garden. Brooklyn Botanic Garden, through December 13. Eighteen stone and metal sculptures from the Noguchi Museum’s permanent collection made a rare trip outside this fall; see them in the still-verdant setting they energize before they disappear with the last of the leaves.classical music11. Hear Takács QuartetGiving voice to something new. Zankel Hall, November 19. The string quartet is one of those antique genres that keep refusing to become obsolete, which is why you’ll find a new piece by Timo Andres sandwiched between the Haydn and Dvorák on this program. That might seem intimidating company for a 30-year-old Brooklynite, but living composers are used to keeping company with the dead.j.d.movies12. See James WhiteWith a breakthrough performance. In theaters. Girls co-star Christopher Abbott gives a revelatory performance in Josh Mond’s elliptical drama about a young man drifting through life. With a handheld camera seemingly fixed on him at all times, the actor has to convey his character’s despair through the minutest of gestures. Meanwhile, Cynthia Nixon shines as his terminally ill mother.bilge ebiripop13. Listen to Childbirth’s Women’s RightsNu-riot grrrls. Suicide Squeeze Records and iTunes. Mixing feminism, punk, and some of the funniest lyrics around, this Seattle supergroup plays infectiously head-bopping songs on their second album, tracks that last three minutes max but are stuck in your head for days.theater14. See Melissa ErricoThe sound of silence. Joe’s Pub, November 18 and 19. What happens to a singer when she has no voice? That’s the setup of Melissa Errico’s new cabaret show, based on her 100 silent days after a burst blood vessel on her vocal cords forced her to quit a production of Passion in 2013. She recovered, and Sing the Silence—with a script by New Yorker writer Adam Gopnik—is the happy outcome.j.g.movies15. See Orson Welles’s The DeepRecovered. MoMA, November 22. MoMA’s film-preservation festival, “To Save and Protect,” always offers hard-to-find gems, but this latest iteration includes an amazing find: a work print of one of Welles’s unfinished, never-before-seen features, a sea thriller starring Jeanne Moreau, Laurence Harvey, and the director himself.b.e.classical music16. Hear The Berliner PhilharmonikerSound and fury. Carnegie Hall, November 17 through 21. Beethoven never goes missing for long in New York’s concert life; even Beethoven festivals recur so regularly that they undermine the composer’s visceral rattle and cerebral extremes. But when Simon Rattle and the Berlin Philharmonic perform all nine symphonies in five nights, there’s a good chance some earth will be shattered.j.d.tv17. Watch It’s Your 50th Christmas, Charlie Brown!You’re still a good man. ABC, November 30 at 9 p.m. “It’s not a bad little tree. All it needs is a little love.” Charlie Brown’s sentiment doubled as a statement of affection for A Charlie Brown Christmas, a rather threadbare animated special that became a classic thanks to Charles Schulz’s characters, Bill Melendez’s direction, and Vince Guaraldi’s wistful score. Kristen Bell hosts this celebration of the Schulz spirit, with live performances of music from the soundtrack.m.z.s.books18. Read The Big Green TentLudmila Ulitskaya, found in translation. Farrar, Straus & Giroux. One of Russia’s most-read (and increasingly denounced) novelists writes page-turners that just happen to be monumentally important. Her focus here, as usual, is on the past, but the parallel between the post-Stalinism under which her three intellectual characters suffer and the Putinism of today is hard to miss. Like that other plot-­forward dissident Boris Pasternak, Ulitskaya puts characters first and politics second.b.k.pop19. See Erykah BaduOne great cover, plenty more originals.Kings Theatre, December 2. Already, many artists have covered Drake’s ubiquitous “Hotline Bling,” but Erykah Badu’s version trumps them all. Maybe she’ll play it when she comes to Brooklyn, but the velvet-voiced singer’s back catalogue is so stacked she certainly doesn’t need Drizzy’s help to put on a great show.l.z.art20. See Mary Simpson’s Off HoursShe moves in mysterious ways. Rachel Uffner Gallery, through December 20. Mary Simpson’s coded poetic art transcends genres while luring us into a beautiful, meditative new world. The many mediums she works in are on mesmerizing display in this show: a video of close-ups of Jasper Johns’s private garden; on another screen, a man’s hands tuning a piano; and sensuous abstract paintings that undulate between careful processes of cutting and soft brushwork, miasmatic staining and other mysterious procedures. j.s.theater21. See Once Upon a MattressIn love with a girl named Fred.Abrons Arts Center, November 23 through January 3. The 1959 musical-comedy spoof of “The Princess and the Pea,” with a classic score by Mary Rodgers and Marshall Barer, gets a welcome revival from the Transport Group. In a double casting coup, Jackie Hoffman stars as Princess Winnifred the Woebegone and John Epperson (a.k.a. Lypsinka) as daunting Queen Aggravain.j.g.pop22. Listen to EL VY’s Return to the MoonDude duo. 4AD. The just-released debut from EL VY, the partnership between Matt Berninger (the National) and Brent Knopf (Menomena and Ramona Falls), is total chaos—in ways both bad and good. Though it bops a little inconsistently from moody lounge rock to quirky electronic ditties, Berninger’s signature self-deprecation remains a constant high point.new music23. Hear Pierre BoulezAt 90.National Sawdust, November 21. The modernist guru has had a long-enough career that some of his works now seem to spring from a distant era—which means it’s time for the young to rediscover them. The International Contemporary Ensemble rolls out “Le Marteau Sans Maître” (from 1955) alongside mid-­century classics by Stockhausen and Nono.j.d.movies24. See Doc NYCGoing out with a bang.Through November 19; see docnyc.net for venues. Scores of goodies here in the final days, among them Lucha Mexico, a headlong dive into the world of masked superheroes and villains (i.e., Mexican wrestling!); and Once and for All, about the 1995 Beijing conference where Hillary Clinton gave a historic address on women’s rights (she’ll be in attendance at the screening, too).theater25. See Half of First Daughter SuiteBefore its term is up. Public Theater, through November 22. The four sections of Michael John LaChiusa’s musical about the lives of presidents’ daughters are, in order, smart, laborious, awful, and sublime. Stay for the sublime Bush installment, with astonishing performances by Rachel Bay Jones, Theresa McCarthy, and, as an implacable, heartbreaking Barbara, Mary Testa. j.g.