Of Richard Goode, the Denver Post has written, "he might well be without equal when it comes to the music of Beethoven." Next week, Nonesuch Records will release Goode's first-ever recording of the complete Beethoven concertos, performed with the Budapest Festival Orchestra and conductor Iván Fischer. All this week, Britain's Classic FM is playing tracks from the set, which its Executive Producer calls "one of the best new CDs of the year so far," even more pointedly exclaiming: "I can safely say that this is going to become one of the benchmark recordings of these Beethoven masterpieces." The Independent gives the recording a perfect five stars.

Allen Toussaint is back home in New Orleans and, as one would expect from the artist featured on the official JazzFest poster, playing a number of festival events, following the release of his new album, The Bright Mississippi. "You’re going to love this," says the Buffalo News of the new album in its four-star review. "Not to be missed." The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette gives the album an A, exclaiming, "Emotional, toetapping and richly spacious, this is one very cool album." Blurt says, "New Orleans could hardly ask for a better tribute."

Amadou & Mariam, who recently released their second Nonesuch album, Welcome to Mali, are scheduled to appear on today's episode of NPR's World Café at 2 PM ET. The new album was featured on PRI's The World Friday as its "Global Hit." Planet magazine says, "Since we first wrote about Amadou and Miriam in 2005, we've remained enchanted by both their music and their affecting story," and cites Welcome to Mali's Damon Albarn–produced opening track, "Sabali," as "a mesmerizing blend of Gorillaz-style electronica and traditional Malian music."

Allen Toussaint's Nonesuch solo debut album, The Bright Mississippi is set for release tomorrow. "Mr. Toussaint brings to these songs his own elegant, reserved sensibility," says the New York Times. "He doesn’t rip them apart or interrogate them on the harmonic or rhythmic terms with which they’ve usually been met; he shines them up and levels them out into slow-rolling and grandiloquent New Orleans songs, full of tremolo chords and serenity no matter whether they were written by Duke Ellington or Thelonious Monk or Django Reinhardt." The Chicago Tribune gives four stars to the "top-notch" new album; The Independent gives it four stars too and describes Toussaint as "the jewel in New Orleans's crown," citing one track as "a bravura performance that bears out Van Dyke Parks's estimation of Toussaint as 'the greatest piano player alive.'"

Toumani Diabaté wrapped up his tour with Béla Fleck's Africa Project last week to kick off his own US tour with the Symmetric Orchestra this week in New Jersey and New York City. "The Symmetrics deliver a jubilant polyrhythmic party of percussion, electric guitars," says The Village Voice, "and Diabaté's 21-stringed instrument showering notes like a musical waterfall." Fleck and Diabaté are featured on NPR's Morning Edition; on which Renée Montagne describes, after a performance by Toumani: "I could sit all day and listen to that."

After The Low Anthem's performance with Ray LaMontagne at The Egg in Albany, New York, Monday night, the Albany Times Union described the band's music as "spare" and "magical," exuding charm in "a hushed, hypnotic way." The Low Anthem helped celebrate the 25th anniversary of West Virginia public broadcasting's Mountain Stage in a special concert last December, now streaming online. "All of them play various instruments," says the show's host, Larry Groce. "They play very subtle music, very quiet, very thoughtful, very interesting tunes."

The Black Keys' singer/guitarist Dan Auerbach stopped by the studios of New York public radio station WFUV for an episode of Words & Music from Studio A to perform songs from his recent solo release, Keep It Hid, with his uncle James Quine, and discuss the project with the show's host, Russ Borris, who calls the album "a fine piece of work ... marked by warm production and some of the best vocals Auerbach has recorded to date."

Sara Watkins's self-titled solo debut is out today on Nonesuch. To mark the occasion, Sara is in New York City, where she'll perform on Soundcheck this afternoon at 2 PM ET, with her brother and Nickel Creek band mate, Sean Watkins, and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers keyboardist Benmont Tench, both of whom are among the stellar list of guest artists on the new album. Sara begins an extensive US tour later this week and returns to New York on Monday to perform on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.

Amadou & Mariam's Welcome to Mali gets "an enthusiastic double-'Buy It' rating" from the hosts of Chicago Public Radio's Sound Opinions, Jim DeRogatis (Chicago Sun-Times) and Greg Kot (Chicago Tribune). "During a rather dark, dismal, and dire week, this album was a constant source of sunshine," says DeRogatis. "This is joyous, celebratory music, absolutely, positively uplifting in its mix of Africa and the West. I love these guys to pieces." Kot concurs: "This is a great record ... I don't think I've heard a better album, beginning to end, than Welcome to Mali, in 2009." On NPR's All Songs Considered, host Bob Boilen says, "They have a deep history of making music together, but nothing quite like their new record  ... Welcome to Mali will surely be one of the best world music records of 2009."

Sara Watkins's self-titled Nonesuch debut is out this week, and, says the BBC, this founding member of Nickel Creek "steps out with a confident stride with her debut solo release." The review calls it "an assured debut ... Watkins' time in the spotlight is a triumph with her agile playing and the kind of voice that gives your goosebumps the shivers." Scotland on Sunday says "it's her affectingly authentic voice that makes her such a superb example of the new Americana." The Washington Post's Express Night Out says Sara's "performances are now in a league with the stylistically similar Allison Krauss." The Kansas City Star says it's an album "for anyone who likes the sound of a good singer and a good band hammering out good music."

The Amadou & Mariam song "Sabali" has grabbed a lot of attention as the opening track to their recent Nonesuch release, Welcome to Mali. Produced by Blur/Gorrillaz front man Damon Albarn, the song is listed among "the most intriguing tracks" this week, according to USA Today. RCRD LBL has chosen a Paul Epworth remix of this "electro-pop miracle" as its MP3 of the Day. Amadou & Mariam are also featured in yesterday's episode of WNYC's Soundcheck, in which New York Times writer Will Hermes follows up on his recent Times article on the changing sounds and perceptions of African music in a more diverse world.

Amadou & Mariam's Welcome to Mali, just out in the US on Nonesuch, is a Pick of the Week on WNYC's Soundcheck, which calls the album "another strong showing of their cosmopolitan sound." New Jersey's Star-Ledger says that, with the new album, the couple "show they have opened up to a new era of musical possibilities," featuring "a sophisticated but rough-edged sound that can evoke African village griot storytellers as well as psychedelic garage bands ... By album's end, they have held master classes in rock, funk, reggae and rap, not to mention African styles," concludes the Star-Ledger, and "crowned a long career with an album that effortlessly blends Africa and the West."