Chris Thile brings his solo tour, featuring music from his new album, Bach: Sonatas and Partitas, Vol. 1, back home to New York City for a sold-out performance in Carnegie Hall's Zankel Hall. The tour continues with stops in Philadelphia, Princeton, Toronto, and Albany before heading back down South, then on to Europe in November. Thile spoke with the New York Times about the tour and the music of Bach: "You can get me moving, and be playing some of the most profoundly well-organized music that humans could possibly imagine. It’s visceral, but everything’s in its right place."

Pianist and composer Brad Mehldau kicks off a ten-day US tour in a new electric duo with drummer Mark Guiliana called Mehliana. The configuration presents Mehldau performing on Fender Rhodes and an arsenal of vintage synthesizers while Guiliana accompanies on drums and effects. The tour begins at The Triple Door in Seattle tonight and includes shows in San Francisco and LA, as well as stops in Illinois, Ohio, and Massachusetts. Mehldau then heads to Europe for a week of solo shows before he and Guiliana reunite for a two-week Mehliana tour of Europe and the UK. To celebrate the tour, Nonesuch is offering an early listen to "Hungry Ghost," a track off the forthcoming Mehliana album, due in early 2014. Listen here.

Bombino, whose Nonesuch Records debut album, Nomad, was released earlier this year, launches the latest leg of his world tour with a performance at Poppodium Tilburg in the Netherlands, Thursday night. The 30-day European tour continues with additional stops in the Netherlands, Belgium, Poland, Sweden, and Finland, before heading to the UK for a seven-city run there, followed by a return to the Continent for several shows in Switzerland, France, and Italy. Bombino and his band then make their way across the Atlantic for a North American tour starting in November.

The ninth annual Holiday Cheer for FUV concert will bring an evening of collaboration to the Beacon Theatre: Iron & Wine and Friends, featuring Calexico as house band for a one-time evening of song and camaraderie. The show will take place Tuesday, December 10, at 8 PM and will benefit New York public radio station 90.7 FM WFUV. Joining them will be songwriter/performer Nick Lowe, plus other artists to be announced. Tickets go on sale through Ticketmaster on Friday, October 18, at noon.

Chris Thile's new solo album, Bach: Sonatas and Partitas, Vol. 1, was released to critical acclaim earlier this year. The album comprises three works written for solo violin, including Sonata No. 1 in G minor, BWV 1001, which Thile performs in its entirety for a new video, available here. He is in the midst of a solo tour of North America, performing music from the new album and more.

Alarm Will Sound begins two important components of its 2013–14 concert season this week: its second "St. Louis season" and its season-long residency at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. The latter comprises four concerts, starting this Friday and including the New York premiere of Steve Reich's new piece, Radio Rewrite, on an all-Reich program November 16.

Gidon Kremer organized a concert at Berlin's Philharmonic Hall on Monday, titled To Russia with Love, to honor slain Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya and support human rights in Russia. Performers included Kremer and Kremerata Baltica, Martha Argerich, Daniel Barenboim, Emanuel Pahud, and others, in a program of works Shostakovich, Prokofiev, Tchaikovsky; the premiere of a new piece by Giya Kancheli; and more. You can watch the complete concert here, via Arte Live Web.

Jeremy Denk has written a brief personal history for this week's issue of The New Yorker, the Money Issue. In the piece, his third for the magazine, Denk shares a story from early in his career. He is also featured on the latest edition of The New Yorker's Out Loud podcast, discussing his new recording of Bach's Goldberg Variations. The album includes video "liner notes," about which Tom Moon writes in Medium: "After hearing him speak with such precision about the details of the work, it’s an absolute delight to hear him use so much of his personality—his poise and exacting sense of order, his restraint leavened by a childlike peering-around-corners curiosity—to bring Bach to life."

Audra McDonald and Mandy Patinkin were special guests on The Colbert Report, as the show threw what it humbly dubbed the "Wedding of the Century." Host Stephen Colbert officiated an on-air wedding ceremony for a couple whose wedding plans were thwarted by the US government shutdown. To help celebrate the newlyweds, Patinkin offered a non-denominational Jewish blessing and McDonald sang Billy Idol's "White Wedding" for the couple's first dance. Watch it here. Audra McDonald was due to perform at the Library of Congress in Washington, DC, this week, but the concert was canceled due to the government shutdown and will be rescheduled.

Brad Mehldau joins the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra for the US premiere of his Variations on a Melancholy Theme, which he says sounds “as if Brahms woke up one day and had the blues." Also on the program are works by Brahms and Beethoven. The three-city tour includes stops in Massachusetts and Pennsylvania, and the New York premiere at Carnegie Hall. Mehldau then kicks off a ten-day US tour of Mehliana, a new electric duo with drummer Mark Guiliana, and heads to Europe for a week of solo shows before a two-week Mehliana tour of Europe and the UK.

Mandolin virtuoso Chris Thile—who, with his fellow Punch Brothers, performed at the unforgettable benefit concert Another Day, Another Time: Celebrating the Music of “Inside Llewyn Davis,” inspired by music from the upcoming Coen Brothers’ film, Inside Llewyn Davis, in New York City on Sunday—kicks off a solo tour performing music from his new album, Bach: Sonatas and Partitas, Vol. 1, at Meany Hall for the Performing Arts in Seattle tonight. The tour makes its way across the US West, down South, and into the Midwest before heading to the Northeast for stops including a sold-out New York City show in Carnegie Hall's Zankel Hall. Thile heads to Europe in November. 

Today marks the North American release of pianist—and newly minted MacArthur Fellow—Jeremy Denk’s recording of J.S. Bach’s Goldberg Variations, with the international release to follow on October 21. A companion DVD accompanies the album and contains video “liner notes,” with Denk demonstrating passages on the piano as he explains certain details of the iconic piece. Denk is currently touring the US and will perform the piece in Washington, DC, and Chicago later this month.