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."

Sam Phillips will be back on the road next week for a short series of dates on the West Coast with songs from her latest Nonesuch release, Don't Do Anything, and from throughout her career. Earlier this week, Acoustic Cafe broadcast a recent live performance, which you can hear online now. Last week, NPR named the title track off the new album its Song of the Day and suggests that when "Phillips sings about the moments that move her heart, [i]t's to her credit that you don't quite know whether it's full to bursting or long since broken."

John Adams's 2005 opera Doctor Atomic received its Met premiere last week. The opera tells the story of the creation of the atomic bomb and the man behind it, J. Robert Oppenheimer. New York magazine says that "Adams has written his finest work" with this "darkly riveting" opera and its "score of microscopic clarity and panoramic sweep." The Star-Ledger praises conductor Alan Gilbert, who "led a performance of precision and expressiveness, bringing the score's harmonic piquancy, metrical complexity, and textural detail together as a visceral rush." The Washington Post says one of the opera's "moments of rich beauty" is the duet between Oppenheimer and his wife, in which "the score is so purely gorgeous it could make you cry."

Randy's West Coast tour landed in California this weekend, leading the Santa Barbara Independent to pronounce that "even missing game seven of the Boston vs. Tampa Bay series last Sunday night in order to witness Newman in action was well worth it," naming him "truly a great American storyteller." No Depression echoes that remark, calling hims "as distinctive a songwriter as popular music has produced," and stating that his latest release, Harps and Angels, "not only recalls the best music Newman has ever made, it equals it."

Soprano Isabel Bayrakdarian concluded her North American tour featuring works from her Nonesuch debut, Gomidas Songs, last night in Carnegie Hall's Zankel Hall. The New York Times previewed the show with a feature on Gomidas, Armenia's national composer, and calls the new CD "what may be the best shot Gomidas has had to shine for the Western classical music world" in 100 years. On Sunday, Bayrakdarian performed in Boston's Jordan Hall, leading the Boston Globe to note that "even those unfamiliar with Gomidas's work found plenty to savor in Bayrakdarian's ravishing performance." The evening's "most emotional moments ... achieved a riveting purity."

Youssou N'Dour: I Bring What I Love, the new film by Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, has won the Black Pearl Special Jury Prize for Best Documentary at the Middle East International Film Festival. The film follows N'Dour as he records and tours with his Grammy-winning 2004 album, Egypt. N'Dour himself performed following the film's screening at the festival, held in Abu Dhabi.

Randy Newman will appear on the TODAY show, Tuesday, October 21, during the 10 AM hour. He will perform live as well as chat with hosts Kathie Lee Gifford and Hoda Kotb.

Sam Phillips and her band perform on the Acoustic Cafe radio show during the week of October 20, 2008. The show was recorded in Ann Arbor, Michigan, during Sam’s recent tour stop in September. 

Audra McDonald joins Barbara Cook, Matthew Broderick, Sarah Jessica Parker, and The Black Keys join Devo for election-year benefits ... John Adams's Doctor Atomic continues at the Met; the Pittsburgh Symphony recognizes Adams as its Composer of the Year ... Laurie Anderson brings Homeland to Canada ... Sérgio and Odair Assad join the Turtle Island Quartet for a college tour ... Isabel Bayrakdarian’s Celebrating Gomidas Vartabed heads to her home country of Canada ... David Byrne disproves "this groove is out of fashion" at two tour stops in Missouri ... Shawn Colvin plays two shows in Mississippi ... Philip Glass shows “Glass overflows with the beauty of Cohen's poems" at Melbourne Festival ... Richard Goode performs in Kansas City ... k.d. lang tours the Midwest ... The Magnetic Fields’ fall tour heads south ... Randy Newman plays the Golden State and offers BBC his "desert island discs" ... Nicholas Payton continues residency at Jazz at Lincoln Center ... Joshua Redman plays 25th annual Festival Miami ... Chris Thile and Edgar Meyer return to the road ... and more ...