John Adams is the subject of a feature article and interview posted today on Salon.com, about Adams's "pretty marvelous book," Hallelujah Junction, and everything from his "bold and blissful work" Harmonielehre to the "electric" new production of Doctor Atomic at the Met. Says Salon: "[A]fter reading Hallelujah Junction, and learning how he consistently challenged himself to go deeper into and wider into music, and himself, it's easy to see how Adams has earned his spot on the A-List of living composers." With Doctor Atomic, writes The Times (UK), the composer "has written his most eclectic and boldest score."

Hallelujah Junction, the two-disc collection of select tracks by John Adams, earns four stars in The Independent. The composer's "charming and illuminating memoir" of the same name, says the New York Times Sunday Book Review, "is a cogent account of its author’s escape from the world of ­audience-alienating 'process' music absorbed with its own making and his arrival at a place where intellectual adventurism and robust emotion coexist ... There is no more self-aggrandizement in this wry, smart and forthright memoir than there is in the venturesome but elegiac music of Adams’s maturity. Indeed, Hallelujah Junction stands with books by Hector Berlioz and Louis Armstrong among the most readably incisive autobiographies of major musical figures."

It was 10 years ago that the Buena Vista Social Club took the stage of Carnegie Hall for what Spinner says was "a cultural event as much as a concert" and, the site exclaims, "How fresh it sounds today! ... It's every bit as revelatory as the introductory album had been and arguably even more involving for the concert setting. You can hear the joy of the performers and audience alike." The Times (UK) gives four stars to this recording of "the triumphant" event.

Laurie Anderson gave two performances of Homeland this weekend in Berkeley, California. "Singing, reciting, teasing, exciting and playing electric violin with a dynamic trio," says the San Francisco Chronicle, "Anderson brought the large audience at Zellerbach Hall to its feet for a prolonged and well-deserved standing ovation." The review describes the piece as "Anderson working in top form, engaging, witty, thought provoking and musically inspired ... [with] new songs that rank with Anderson's best work."

The Magnetic Fields brought their fall tour to a close yesterday after a full weekend of performances that brought them from Columbus, Ohio, to Philadelphia to Washington, DC. Getting a head start to the weekend's gigs, the band played in Jersey City, New Jersey, on Thursday night, leading The Star-Ledger to write: "As offbeat as he is, Merritt is also a pop purist. His songs were full of graceful melodic twists and clever turns of phrase. There is, simply, a poetry to his words that you rarely hear at a rock show."

Before Edgar Meyer and Chris Thile take the stage at the University of Chicago's Mandel Hall tonight, the pair can be heard live on WFDU-FM's Lonesome Pine RFD this morning. The Washington Post says the duo's self-titled Nonesuch debut "represents the most substantial music Thile has recorded, for the give-and-take between the high-pitched mandolin and the deeply resounding bass is full of dark drama and rigorous musical architecture." The Kansas City Star says "the duo's world-class musicianship" along with "the highly intuitive communication that exists in the music itself ... provide the album's 12 compositions with heart, humor, precision and warmth."

Isabel Bayrakdarian's tour with songs celebrating Armenia's national composer featured on her recent Nonesuch debut, Gomidas Songs, came to a close earlier this week. Audiophile Audition says the songs on the album are "rendered to perfection by the wonderful Isabel Bayrakdarian ... fabulous, tuneful, bittersweet, and hopeful ..." The review concludes: "[T]his album soars to one of the top song albums of the year, heartily and urgently recommended to all."

Brad Mehldau takes a night away from his Trio tour to play a special duo set with label mate Joshua Redman tomorrow night at the Christuskirche in Mannheim, Germany. The Financial Times, in its review of the Trio's recent show at London's Barbican, says of Brad: "Mehldau creates gently undulating soundscapes of gradually gathering intensity. Starting with the simplest of motifs, he develops an intricate tapestry of melodic details, chordal voicings and dense cross-rhythms." The Guardian calls the Trio's concert take on Sufjan Stevens' "Holland" "a lambent, implausibly lovely improvisation."

The recently released Buena Vista Social Club at Carnegie Hall documents the group of stellar Cuban musicians' unforgettable concert at the storied hall a decade ago. Rolling Stone gives the album 4.5 out of 5 stars, exclaiming: "That show, captured on this two-disc set, is even more emotionally engaging than the group's eponymous album, which triggered a worldwide Latin-jazz revival." The New York Times calls the concert "the emotional climax" of the Wim Wenders documentary about the group, crediting soloists Rubén González, Compay Segundo, and Ibrahim Ferrer: "Heard here, they sound enlivened, elated and a bit amazed, and the feeling is contagious."

Chris Thile and Edgar Meyer bring their tour of the States to a close next Wednesday at Carnegie Hall. Nonesuch released their eponymous debut duo disc last month, along with a special deluxe edition that also includes a DVD full of concert performances and behind-the-scene footage. Audiophile Audition gives it five stars, concluding: "When you combine these two musicians, you get magic. Of course, it’s magic that explodes out of any boundaries that you might want to impose on them ... In a word, it’s wonderful."

Brad Mehldau has kicked off the European leg of his fall tour with his Trio, whose performance earlier this week at London's Barbican earned four stars from both The Times (UK) and The Guardian. "From the opening left-hand phrases of Brad Mehldau's 'Dream Sketch,' there wasn't a finger out of place in two hours of music-making," reports The Times. "This was a trio whose members were in perfect accord with one another ... [and] demonstrated a level of telepathic co-operation rare not only in jazz, but music of any sort." Metro concurs, adding: "The Brad Mehldau Trio is the quintessential modern piano outfit."

The closing concert of Isabel Bayrakdarian's North American tour celebrating the music of Armenian composer Gomidas Vartabed was held in Carnegie Hall's Zankel Hall on Monday. It featured songs from the soprano's Nonesuch debut, Gomidas Songs, which the New York Times calls "irresistible." In the recital, says the Times, she "playfully gamboled through childlike melodies, her voice warm and sunny; in the laments her plaintive tone cut to the heart. She made sinuously winding melismatic passages seem effortless."