Yo Yo Ma:
- Songs from the Arcs of Life
Cellist Yo-Yo Ma and pianist Kathryn Stott create a unique classical music experience with their new recording ‘Songs from the Arc of Life’. This recording also celebrates thirty years of friendship and collaboration in concerts and recordings for Ma and Stott.
The album includes pieces they have frequently performed but never recorded, as well as a handful of other jewels.
‘Songs from the Arc of Life’ begins and ends with two wonderful settings of the traditional “Ave Maria,” opening with the soaring, radiant Bach/Gounod arrangement, and closing with Schubert’s more well-known version.
The specific track titles are as follows:
Brahms: Wiegenlied, Op. 49 No. 4 (Lullaby)
Debussy: Beau Soir
Delius: Romance for cello & piano
Dvorak: Songs My Mother Taught Me, Op. 55 No. 4
Elgar: Salut d’amour, Op. 12
Fauré: Après un rêve, Op. 7 No. 1, and Papillon, Op. 77
Gade, J: Tango Jalousie
Gershwin: Prelude No. 1
Gounod: Ave Maria
Grieg: Two Elegiac Melodies, Op. 34
Kreisler: La Gitana
Messiaen: Louange à l’Éternité de Jesus
Saint-Saëns: Le carnaval des animaux
Schubert: Ave Maria, D839
Schumann: Stücke im Volkston, Op. 102: No. 1
Sibelius: Var det en dröm? Op. 37 No. 4
Sollima: Il bell’Antonio, Tema III
Tchaikovsky: Valse sentimentale, Op. 51 No. 6
All performed by Yo-Yo Ma (cello), and Kathryn Stott (piano)
This is a remarkable collection of music that also includes a haunting piece by the contemporary composer Giovanni Sollima, a friend and colleague of both artists.
Here are Yo-Yo Ma and Kathryn Stott in ‘The Swan’ by Camille Saint-Saëns:
And next, here are Yo-Yo Ma and Kathryn Stott talking and playing about the making of ‘Songs from the Arc of Life’:
