The Boston Herald's list of the Top Ten classical albums of the year is out, and four of the ten are from Nonesuch: Kronos Quartet's Floodplain, John Adams's Doctor Atomic Symphony, Alarm Will Sound's a/rhythmia, and Gidon Kremer and Kremerata Baltica's recording of Mozart's Complete Violin Concertos. The Herald had named The Low Anthem's Oh My God, Charlie Darwin and Wilco's Wilco (the album) among the year's best in pop/rock.

As announced earlier this month, Nonesuch is set to release the soundtrack from the critically acclaimed documentary about Youssou N’Dour, I Bring What I Love, in January 2010. The album will now be available on January 26, rather than on January 12, as previously announced. The film will be out on DVD via Oscilloscope sometime in early 2010.

John Adams led the Orchestra of St. Luke's in a performance of El Niño at Carnegie Hall Sunday. The New York Times finds Adams's Nativity Oratorio to be "best suited to the business of telling the Nativity story" of the works typically heard during Advent and credits the conductor with drawing "a solid, passionate performance from the orchestra." Playbill spoke with Adams and New York City Ballet's Peter Martins about Martins's new piece set to Naive and Sentimental Music, which recently premiered at Lincoln Center.

David Byrne and Fatboy Slim have paired up for Here Lies Love, a 22-track song cycle about the life of former First Lady of the Philippines Imelda Marcos and her childhood servant, Estrella Cumpas. In addition to Byrne and Fatboy Slim, the album, due February 23 [now April 6] on Todomundo / Nonesuch Records, features performances by Santigold, Florence Welch (Florence + The Machine), Sia, Steve Earle, St. Vincent, Natalie Merchant, Tori Amos, Sharon Jones, Nicole Atkins, and many others.

Randy Newman has announced that he will tour Europe in April and May 2010 to support the release of his acclaimed, best-selling album Harps and Angels, his first album of new material in nine years and the first record of his 40-year career ever to chart in the UK. The tour includes dates in Finland, Norway, Denmark, Germany, Spain, Belgium, Ireland, UK, and Holland, and follows a February performance at UCLA in February.

The revival of Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler's A Little Night Music opened last night at the Walter Kerr Theatre, starring Catherine Zeta-Jones and Angela Lansbury; Nonesuch Records / PS Classics will record the cast album in January. New York calls the revival a "stunning, twilit, devastatingly good new production ... beautiful." Sondheim and Lansbury talk to the magazine about this and their previous work together. NPR's Weekend Edition looks at a different sort of relationship with ties to the play. USA Today praises both Lansbury and Sondheim's score for their "blend of wit and poignancy."

The Associated Press has announced its Top Ten list of the best albums of 2009, and on it are Wilco's Wilco (the album) at No. 3 and Allen Toussaint's The Bright Mississippi at No. 9. Included as Honorable Mention is Dan Auerbach's solo debut, Keep It Hid, and Amadou & Mariam's Welcome to Mali is "also one of the year's best."

Nonesuch Records and PS Classics will record the cast album of Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler's A Little Night Music on January 4, 2010. The production, which opens on December 13, 2009, at the Walter Kerr Theatre, stars Catherine Zeta-Jones, Angela Lansbury, and Alexander Hanson. Directed by Trevor Nunn, it is the first revival of the show since its 1973 debut. Tommy Krasker will produce the album.

John Adams leads El Niño with Dawn Upshaw at Carnegie Hall ... Amadou & Mariam play the Nobel Peace Prize Concert in Oslo ... the Assads stop by A Prairie Home Companion live in NY ... Christina Courtin plays NY's Rockwood Music Hall ... Philip Glass is solo in Istanbul ... Emmylou Harris supports Epilepsy Foundation in Nashville ... Kronos reunites with Joan Jeanrenaud in Berkeley ... Brad Mehldau joins Haden, Konitz, Motian at Birdland ... Joshua Redman plays with James Farm in Philly ... Sara Watkins joins Grant Lee Phillips in LA ... and more ...

BlakRoc, the album that brought together The Black Keys, Damon Dash, and a star-studded lineup of hip-hop MCs, is now available digitally at nonesuch.com for fans in the US and Canada at the same audiophile-quality 320kbps MP3s available throughout the site. The A.V. Club gives the album an A, saying it "defeats all odds by sounding both organic and cohesive." The Houston Chronicle gives it four stars, calling it "a sinewy masterpiece."

Wilco's latest Nonesuch release, Wilco (the album), has been named Album of the Year by the Independent, which has an exclusive interview with Jeff Tweedy as well. In a year that has been "a fine year for albums," the paper's Andy Gill calls Wilco's newest "an extraordinary achievement." Also on his list of favorites is Oh My God, Charlie Darwin from The Low Anthem, "this year's most intriguing new Americana-indie offshoot." The Boston Herald concurs, placing both albums on its Top 10 of 2009.

Kronos Quartet's latest Nonesuch release, Floodplain, has been named one of the Ten Best Albums of 2009 by Songlines. "There are few musicians on earth that encompass a range of music like Kronos," says Songlines, praising its "mastery of classical string playing" and "engagement with traditional sounds and contemporary geo-politics." The group reunites with its former cellist, Joan Jeanrenaud, in concert at UC Berkeley this Sunday.