Appassionato

Yo-Yo Ma - Appassionato reflects an extraordinary range of collaborators and includes so many of the most important musical relationships of Yo-Yo's life. The works selected here have never before been available on one single compilation. The album also represents the entire span of Yo-Yo's recording career, beginning with his first recordings for the label (Saint-Saens' The Swan) and culminating with three new tracks recorded this past fall especially for the collection. the most admired and beloved classical artist of his generation, cellist Yo-Yo Ma delivers an album of romance and passion, featuring some of the most beautiful music he has ever recorded.

Any new compilation CD starring Yo-Yo Ma is certain to please. This master of the cello takes the listener through so many types of music that the ear and mind never tire. The present selection is billed as a sort of "musical autobiography," and, indeed, it gives us a tour of Ma's musical life. The Silk Road Project is represented by Zhao's "Swallow Song," with its eerie, fascinating soundscape (specially re-recorded for this CD). We also accompany Ma on his excursions into the world of the baroque cello with Vivaldi or of the Finnish folk song (by Mamiya, a first recording). There are Gershwin's languid Second Prelude, with its intimations of the song "Summertime," and an all-new recording of a nine-minute heart-breaker by Astor Piazzolla ("Soledad"). Ma also gives us more familiar Brahms, Franck, and Saint-Saens. The compilation's mellow 65 minutes offer relaxing, beautiful music, all exquisitely played. Ma is joined by the best: Emanuel Ax, Kathryn Stott, John Williams (who plays piano on his own "Going to School" from Memoirs of a Geisha), Isaac Stern, and Claudio Abbado. This is a veritable Who's Who of superb musicians. --Robert Levine