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Wednesday, August 1, 2018

Yo‐Yo Ma & Kathryn Stott - Songs from the Arc of Life


Information

  1. Bach, Gounod - Ave Maria
  2. Brahms - Lullaby, Op 49 No. 4
  3. Dvořák - Songs My Mother Taught Me, Op. 55 No. 4
  4. Fauré - Papillon, Op. 77
  5. Gade - Tango Jalousie
  6. Schumann - I. Vanitas vanitatum, Op. 102 No. 1
  7. Sibelius - Was It a Dream?, Op. 37 No. 4
  8. Fauré - Après un rêve, Op. 7 No. 1
  9. Elgar - Salut d’amour, Op. 12
  10. Gershwin - Prelude No. 1 (from Three Preludes)
  11. Delius - Romance for Cello and Piano
  12. Kreisler - La Gitana
  13. Sollima - Il bell’Antonio, Tema III
  14. Saint-Saëns - The Swan (from Carnival of the Animals)
  15. Grieg - The Wounded Heart, Op. 34 No. 1
  16. Tchaikovsky - Valse sentimentale, Op. 51 No. 6
  17. Messiaen - Louange à l’éternité de Jésus (from Quartet to the End of Time)
  18. Debussy - Beau Soir
  19. Schubert - Ave Maria, Op. 52 No. 6
  20. Fauré - Romance, Op. 69
  21. Tchaikovsky - Melodie, Op. 42 No. 3
  22. Falla - Nana (from Siete Canciones Populares Españolas)

Yo-Yo Ma, cello
Kathryn Stott, piano

Date: 2015
Label: Sony Classical


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Review

What is the most challenging repertoire for any artist to commit to disc? Bach’s Cello Suites, Beethoven’s Violin Concerto, Mozart’s piano sonatas? No, surely it’s the bon-bon record, which is what this essentially is, its title ‘Songs from the Arc of Life’ notwithstanding. Such a name could, in other hands, have seemed pretentious or – worse – cheesy, but not here, for Yo-Yo Ma and Kathryn Stott take us on a musical journey through life that also celebrates their 30-year musical friendship. Where else to begin but with Bach, via Gounod’s gentle transformation into an Ave Maria of the C major Prelude that launches the ‘48’?

Highlights are many, and they skirt the dangers of slow-miniature overload deftly. ‘Après un rêve’ followed by Salut d’amour was one danger spot, but such is the directness of Ma’s tone, confiding but never sentimental, that it instead makes a telling combination, especially as the Elgar is followed by Gershwin’s palate-cleansing First Prelude. And then we’re back in England for the Delius Romance, a delectable dream of a piece. It’s not all slow and ethereal, though: the Tango jalousie by Gade (Jacob, not Niels) has real zest, while the extended Il bell’Antonio by Giovanni Sollima, with its arching cello lines that soar above a repeated-note piano backdrop, is warmly evocative. Even a miniature as hackneyed as ‘The Swan’ comes up sounding fresh, such is the imagination and reactiveness of these two artists. Another inspired touch is the inclusion of a movement from Messiaen’s Quatuor pour la fin du temps, which is mesmerising in Ma’s hands. And by this point, you realise that the title of the disc is utterly apt: this is a meditation on life, not a bag of musical pick‘n’mix. We end as we began, with an Ave Maria, this time by Schubert. The recording is wonderfully immediate, as is the conversation between the artists in the booklet.

-- Harriet Smith, Gramophone

More reviews:
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/sep/27/yo-yo-ma-kathryn-stott-songs-from-the-arc-of-life-cd-review-joyful-celebration
https://www.npr.org/2015/09/09/438581988/first-listen-yo-yo-ma-kathryn-stott-songs-from-the-arc-of-life
https://www.classicfm.com/artists/yo-yo-ma/music/songs-from-the-arc-of-life-stott/
https://www.allmusic.com/album/songs-from-the-arc-of-life-mw0002868054
https://www.amazon.com/Songs-Arc-Life-Amazon-Deluxe/dp/B010CG2GV2

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Yo-Yo Ma (born October 7, 1955 in Paris) is a French-born Chinese American cellist. Ma was a child prodigy. He graduated from the Juilliard School and Harvard University and has enjoyed a prolific career as both a soloist and a recording artist. He has recorded more than 90 albums and received 18 Grammy Awards. In addition to recordings of the standard classical repertoire, he has recorded a wide variety of folk music. Ma's primary performance instrument is a Montagnana cello crafted in 1733 valued at US$2.5 million. Another of Ma's cellos, the Davidov Stradivarius, was previously owned by Jacqueline du Pré.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yo-Yo_Ma

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Kathryn Stott (born 10 December 1958 in Nelson, Lancashire) is a British pianist who performs as a soloist, recitalist and chamber musician. She attended the Yehudi Menuhin School, where her teachers included Nadia Boulanger, Marcel Ciampi, Barbara Kerslake and Ravel specialist, Vlado Perlemuter. She then studied at the Royal College of Music with Kendall Taylor. Her specialities include the English and French classical repertoire, contemporary classical music and the tango. Stott teaches at the Royal Academy of Music and Chetham's School of Music, and has organised several music festivals and concert series.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kathryn_Stott

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