The new Coen brothers film Inside Llewyn Davis has landed on a number of lists of the Best Movies of 2013, including those of The New Yorker, Rolling Stone, and the New York Times, whose A.O. Scott calls this "a year of superabundant quality" in film and places Inside Llewyn Davis at No. 1. "The musical performances—especially from Oscar Isaac, who plays the title character—are hauntingly lovely," he writes. Slate says: "Inside Llewyn Davis is the best film ever made about the folk revival—and one of the best ever made about music, period." 

NPR Music has published the list of its 100 Favorite Songs of 2013, and featured among them are songs from three Nonesuch Records releases: Rokia Traoré's "Mélancolie," from her new album, Beautiful Africa; Sam Amidon's "My Old Friend," from Bright Sunny South; and Timo Andres's Paraphrase on Themes of Brian Eno, from Home Stretch. "What do you have to do, as a song, to win our hearts," asks NPR. "You have to sink in. You have to stop someone dead in her tracks. You need to cause that man to act a fool." These are songs that "are stamped with memories or reliably turn the temperature up or put a smile on our face every single time."

The new Coen brothers film Inside Llewyn Davis has been named one of the Top 10 Films of the Year by the American Film Institute and is nominated for the LA Film Critics Award for Best Music Score. Watch a new featurette on the casting of the film, including behind-the-scenes footage and interviews with the Coen brothers and cast members Justin Timberlake, Carey Mulligan, John Goodman, and Garrett Hedlund here. Oscar Isaac, who plays the title role, was a guest on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon last night; watch the interview and a special performance here.

Bombino's Nonesuch debut album, Nomad, has been named among NPR Music's 50 Favorite Albums of 2013. The Tuareg guitarist, singer, and songwriter and The Black Keys' Dan Auerbach, who produced the album, "turned out to be a fabulous team," says NPR's Bob Boilen. "What you hear on Nomad is Bombino's already vigorous sound with a bit more bite." Nomad was recently named to Rolling Stone's list of the 50 Best Albums of 2013 and to Uncut's list of the Best World Music Albums.

Congratulations to Emmylou Harris and Rodney Crowell on their nomination for the Grammy Award for Best Americana Album of the Year for Old Yellow Moon. The album, released to critical acclaim earlier this year, is the first official collaboration from the duo since Crowell joined Harris’ Hot Band as guitarist and harmony singer in 1975. Old Yellow Moon has already been named one of the Best Albums of the Year by American Songwriter and Uncut and has landed in the Top Ten of Amazon Customer Favorite Albums of 2013.

Six by Sondheim, a new documentary examining the life and music of composer-lyricist Stephen Sondheim, premieres on HBO tonight at 9 PM. Directed by frequent Sondheim collaborator James Lapine, Six by Sondheim is a personal profile of the artist presented through the six of his iconic songs. Told primarily in Sondheim’s own words, the documentary includes interviews with the composer, rarely seen archival material, and re-stagings of three songs produced especially for the film, including Audra McDonald performing "Send in the Clowns." NPR's Fresh Air calls the documentary "delightful." The Boston Globe calls it "stunning," a "must-see for musical theatre lovers." Watch the trailer here.

Audra McDonald wowed an audience of more than 18 million viewers on the live, televised broadcast of The Sound of Music on NBC last Thursday, portraying the Mother Abbess to great critical acclaim. McDonald "has been pretty much unanimously appointed the show-stealer of the night," says TIME. The Christian Science Monitor says "McDonald was a majestic Mother Abbess." The Los Angeles Times says: "The golden pipes of McDonald, playing the Rev. Mother, opened the broadcast, but her memorable scene came later, singing 'Climb Ev'ry Mountain,' one of Rodgers and Hammerstein's most enduring numbers from their 1959 Broadway musical." Watch the performance here. And hear her take on "Edelweiss" on her new album, Go Back Home.

Inside Llewyn Davis, the new film from Joel and Ethan Coen, opens in select theaters in New York City and Los Angeles today. The film, which has already been met with great critical acclaim, continues to earn accolades. Los Angeles Times' Kenneth Turan calls the Coen brothers' latest "a singular experience, one of their best films." NPR says it "represents not just another in a streak of brilliant films, but the finest blend yet of the duo's sharp, laugh-out-loud wit and sobering insight into the loneliness and absurdity of existence."

Jeremy Denk spoke with PBS NewsHour's Art Beat correspondent Jeffrey Brown about his new recording of Bach's Goldberg Variations and its companion DVD with video "liner notes" of Denk demonstrating passages on the piano as he explains certain details of the iconic piece. In their conversation, Denk describes the Variations as "one of the most beautiful music lessons in history." Watch the NewsHour segment here. Jeremy Denk joins the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra for two concerts this weekend.

Inside Llewyn Davis, the new Coen brothers film set in the Greenwich Village folk scene of 1961, is a New York Times Critics' Pick. The Times' A.O. Scott says Oscar Isaac "plays both Llewyn and the guitar with offhand virtuosity." The Wall Street Journal lauds “Isaac's phenomenal performance.” The actor discussed the role and the music on NPR's All Things Considered and on WNYC's Soundcheck, which you can listen to here, and in a Hollywood Reporter piece you can watch here. Time calls the soundtrack "a trove of sonic pleasure," and Rolling Stone calls it "pure pleasure."

Steve Reich has been named the Artist in Residence at the 2014 Big Ears Festival, which will be held in downtown Knoxville, Tennessee, March 28–30, 2014. The composer will be in attendance, as Ensemble Signal will perform his groundbreaking 1976 piece Music for 18 Musicians, along with his new Radio Rewrite, inspired by two songs from Radiohead. Radiohead's Jonny Greenwood will perform Reich’s Electric Counterpoint, and So Percussion will perform his 1971 classic Drumming. Weekend passes go on sale this Friday, December 6, at noon.

Inside Llewyn Davis, the new film from Joel and Ethan Coen, has received the award for Best Feature at the Gotham Awards. A new featurette called "Finding Llewyn Davis," looks at how Oscar Isaac earned the title role. You can watch it here, along with a film clip of Justin Timberlake, Carey Mulligan, and Stark Sands performing "Five Hundred Miles" here. "Folk music is essential to the film—and not only as its soundtrack," writes the Wall Street Journal's Jim Fusilli. "It’s clear from Inside Llewyn Davis that the Coen brothers listen to music with a writer’s ear for story." The Village Voice gives the film five stars, saying it "might be the best Coen brothers movie yet," and calls Isaac's voice "luminous as the moon."