Brad Mehldau's new 2CD/DVD solo album Live in Marciac is out today on Nonesuch. The Los Angeles Times says: "Mehldau's technical mastery can be enough to make your head spin, but the feeling is invigorating." The Financial Times gives four stars to the "enthralling" album, as does the Daily Telegraph. The Boston Globe says it showcases "what he does best." The Independent on Sunday calls it "a triumph of imagination and structure. Quite simply, he's on fire, inspired, out there, playing with the gods." The Irish Times gives the album a perfect five stars. "A joy at every level—and another contender for the year’s best." Watch an excerpt of Mehldau improvising on "My Favorite Things" here.

Brad Mehldau’s 2CD/DVD solo album Live in Marciac is out in just one week, on February 22. The Times of London says: "If you haven’t bought a jazz album since The Köln Concert, this would make a good follow-up." Jazzwise gives it four stars and features Mehldau in this month’s issue. He also spoke with The Huffington Post. "His breathtaking command of his instrument is undeniable," says the site. "But what he is able to say musically as a soloist within the context of each song combined with his improvisations is simply masterful."

Brad Mehldau and the musicians featured on his 2010 Nonesuch release, Highway Rider, gave the final live performance of the album, at Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles Friday night. The Los Angeles Times says: "It wasn't classical-jazz, jazz-pop or some other hyphenated hybrid. It was just a great ride." Mehldau gives a New York Times–recommended solo set at Carnegie Hall this week, featuring songs off Highway Rider and Mehldau's forthcoming Live in Marciac, as well as works by Brahms, Bach, Fauré, Radiohead, and Jeff Buckley.

Renée Fleming comes to Carnegie Hall this week, accompanied by Hartmut Höll, for a performance that includes songs from Brad Mehldau's The Book of Hours: Love Poems to God, featuring the poetry of Rainer Marie Rilke, as heard on Mehldau and Fleming's 2006 album Love Sublime. The Washington Post said of Fleming's performance at The Kennedy Center on Saturday that the program "showcased her gifts beautifully." Mehldau performs his Highway Rider at Walt Disney Concert Hall in LA next week and offers a solo program at Carnegie Hall later this month.

Brad Mehldau's Highway Rider has made the Jazzwise list of the Top 10 Albums of the Year for 2010. "Brad Mehldau doesn’t do things by halves," says Jazzwise, which sees the new album as notable both for reuniting Mehldau with producer Jon Brion and for "showing another side to the increasingly influential Mehldau." Mehldau and the featured artists on Highway Rider recently performed the piece in the US and Europe and will do so again at LA's Walt Disney Concert Hall in January.

Brad Mehldau gave the New York premiere of his Highway Rider in Carnegie Hall's Zankel Hall Tuesday night, performing with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra and the musicians featured on the album. The New York Times says of all Mehldau's classically inspired works, Highway Rider "is his grandest effort yet," with its "ear-catching modal motif" and influences in Beethoven. At the same time, it remains "couched in jazz’s bluesy chromaticism and fluid rhythms." Highway Rider's European premiere is this Saturday at the Barbican in London.

Brad Mehldau's Highway Rider receives its world premiere performance tonight and Saturday at the Walker Arts Center in Minneapolis. Mehldau will perform with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Jeff Ballard, Larry Grenadier, Joshua Redman, and Matt Chamberlain. "Mehldau has built a career on mixing musical styles and influences into something celebrated as distinctly original," says the Minneapolis Star Tribune. "He has put that aesthetic to particular work in his newest album Highway Rider, a piece that flexes Mehldau's composing muscles as much as it does his jazz piano acumen." The New York Times calls it "this year’s most luxurious jazz release."

Brad Mehldau is set to launch his Highway Rider tour with the world premiere of the piece due at the Walker Arts Center in Minneapolis on November 5 and 6, followed by the New York premiere at Carnegie Hall on November 9. The latter is the first event of Mehldau's tenure as holder of the Debs Composer's Chair at Carnegie Hall. As such, he has published the first in a series of blog posts on the Carnegie Hall website, offering insight on composition and improvisation.

Laurie Anderson and Brad Mehldau are featured on New York magazine's list of The 20 Most Anticipated Events of the Fall in classical music and dance. Anderson tops the list with the New York premiere of her piece Delusion, which opens BAM's Next Wave festival. Brad Mehldau comes to New York as holder of the Debs Composer's Chair at Carnegie Hall, for the New York premiere of Highway Rider.

Happy Birthday to Brad Mehldau, who turns 40 years old. Mehldau celebrated a few hours early when he joined John Mayer on stage at the Hollywood Bowl last night. Mehldau's next performs with his Trio at the Chicago Jazz Festival over Labor Day weekend, the last Trio date before the November premiere of Highway Rider with Joshua Redman, Matt Chamblerain, and the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra.

With the year at its halfway point, NPR's jazz sampler, Take Five, has picked its choices for the Best New Jazz of 2010 (So Far). Two of the five come from Nonesuch: Orchestrion, on which Pat Metheny "makes every instrument an extension of his guitar skills, technical knowledge and sheer artistic willpower," and Highway Rider, on which Brad Mehldau "shows how much he's grown as a composer, and not just a renowned pianist."