Yo-Yo Ma Collection Discography ¥65 for purchase
"In today's challenging and ever-changing world, classical music is all too easily marginalized. Yo-Yo Ma embodies Nielsen's expectations of an artist when he created this award, and through his outstanding musical talent, passion and dedication, he uses music to help the world imagine and build a better future. That's what Yo-Yo-Yo Ma said in 2022 when she won the Birgit Nelson Award, one of the highest honors in classical music, the Nielsen Foundation, Susanne Ryden!
In these 60 years of rushing like water, Yo-Yo Ma's cello sound and performance have infected countless music fans around the world (although he did not want to learn the cello at first, but because he could not play the violin, the double bass was too big for him, so he compromised and chose the cello).
For him, having music, cello, and playing is something he is especially happy about. He has always advocated the idea that music has no borders, so he has cross-border performances with famous musicians in various fields, so he founded the "Silk Road" orchestra in 1998, so he cooperated closely with the "West-East Fusion Orchestra" founded by Barenboim...
Yo-Yo Ma's music is as pure and vast as himself, and when you close your eyes and listen carefully, you will see the endless sea, the vast universe... It was he who freed cello playing from the shackles of tradition, and music was no longer enshrined in temples for worship, but deeply rooted in the earth, closely related to human life and an indispensable necessity. And he has always adhered to this belief and worked hard.
Although everything he does is different from most traditional cellist players in the West, Yo-Yo-Yo Ma is merely conveying his music and ideas to the world. "I am a person first, a musician second, and finally a cellist," he said. Humility, romance, humor, passion, love of equality, these are his beautiful words.
These are the important reasons why so many people around the world love Yo-Yo Ma's performance, and peers love to work with him. U.S. presidents favored Yo-Yo-Yo Ma's playing, Jobs appointed Yo-Yo-Yo Ma to play for him at his weddings and funerals, and the Grammys awarded him extraordinary awards; The media called him "the sexiest classical musician."
Even though Yo-Yo Ma is now in his prime of age, he is still active, and the Silk Road Project, cross-border popularity, and pure classicalism have always been the three important directions of development of Yo-Yo Ma's cello art.
The 7 albums shared next will show the audience the beautiful cello sound of Yo-Yo Ma from the above three aspects, which is also the three indispensable directions for people to understand Yo-Yo Ma, and there is a more collectible Yo-Yo Ma 7 album combination set!
In 2011, Yo-Yo Ma (cello) recorded the album "Captive Quartet" with Edgar Meyer (double bass), Scheer (mandolin), Duncan (violin) in the form of a subversive quartet, and won the 2013 Grammy "Best Folk Album" and "Best Recording Project in the Non-Classical Category".
Their group was formed to combine classical music with other genres for a creative and adventurous musical journey.
The album's musical backbone - Bluegrass music is a genre of American country music, full of grassroots. Its style is a blend of traditional music from Scotland, Wales, Ireland and elsewhere, while also being influenced by jazz. Therefore, "improvisation" has become an important expression of bluegrass music; The extensive use of plucked and rubbed instruments is also a major feature of bluegrass music. The participation of the mandolin player Cyel, who is active in the bluegrass music scene, was definitely a guarantee of fun. Coupled with the collaboration between Meier and Duncan, it is refreshing to swim between bluegrass and classical. Yo-Yo Ma said: "This combination is actually full of many unforeseen dangers. But at the same time, we build trust and support each other in a fun way. For me, that's the Goat Rodeo."
As for the recording, four famous solo artists sat face to face in a circle, no one was isolated in another recording studio, and the four people played in one time and space, as if they were present, precise and consistent. For the four musicians, recording this album was also a new challenge and experiment. Yo-Yo Ma, who is a classical trainer, improvises like a master of jazz, and Duncan, a composer, throws his notes aside; Similarly, Meyer not only plays smoothly according to his manuscript, but also can improvise at the same time, while Scheer performs perfectly from memory, as if he were an improv genius.
Yo-Yo Ma's cello collection "Impressions" spans the fields of jazz, crossover, film soundtrack and classical, including "Eternal Vow", "Piazzola: Tango of Freedom", "Edgar Mayer: First Impressions", "Schubert: Trout Quintet in A major", "Chrysler: Sorrows of Love" and other 24 classic tracks, which are the portrayal of the new world music of Yo-Yo Ma without borders and zero language barriers, and the preferred choice for collecting Yo-Yo Ma's diverse faces.
I believe that anyone who has heard Yo-Yo Ma play live here knows that from the first flowing note, Yo-Yo Ma can transcend the boundaries of music with extraordinary charm and superb skill, and easily navigate everything between classical and jazz.
In 2020, "See the Sheep Quartet" invites the original cast to reunite, violinist Stuart Duncan, double bass cellist Edgar Meier, mandolin player Chris Schier, and Grammy singer-songwriter O'Donald Wenn, their exquisite skills and experience in the field of traditional music they specialize in are once again intertwined in this collaboration, blending American Appalachian, Chinese, classical, Gült and jazz to create fascinating music. This unique sound, combined with the globalization of world music and strong local characteristics, is a voice that belongs to this generational environment and speaks to us at this very moment in our lives.
In 2020, cellist Yo-Yo Ma and his long-time accompaniment partner, pianist Catherine Stott, released a new recording "Song of Consolation and Hope", which includes not only classical music, but also "Rain from the Roof" by Chinese musician Wu Tong; Irish ballad "Danny Boy"; The movie song "Above the Rainbow", which symbolizes good hope, has been selected across five continents of the world, including ancient and modern, Chinese and foreign, showing the cross-border spirit to the extreme.
Since their first recording in 1985, they have won multiple Grammy Awards, and music critics have said: "Their perfect collaboration and deep friendship over the years is on display in these wonderful performances." ”
Bach's "A Cappella Cello Suite" has been inseparable since Yo-Yo Ma was four years old and is an indispensable partner in his musical career.
The recording of Bach's "Big Nothing" included in this album is Yo-Yo Ma's third recording, and it will also be his last recording of Bach "Big Nothing". "This is the last time, but it is also the first step in a whole new journey," he said. To those who seek solace and balance in times of displacement. ”
His first full-length suite "Big Nothing" won a Grammy Award when it was released, and his second suite was hailed as "a great change in classical music in the twentieth century", becoming the version of the century that sensationalized the music scene, and many music critics commented: "Yo-Yo Ma's cello transcends borders, and the sound of the piano is full of the passion of life and the shock of love."
In 2017, Yo-Yo Ma invited his old friend pianist Aix and his new partner Greek violinist Cavakos to return to his favorite chamber music form and perform songs that had never been recorded on an album: Brahms' "The Complete Piano Trio", and Cavakos had already won the first prize in three international violin competitions at the age of 21: Sibelius (1985), Paganini (1988) and Nomburg (1988). Its high-quality performance quality has won unanimous praise from music fans around the world.
Pianist Ax collaborated with Yo-Yo Ma on chamber music recordings of Brahms, including Brahms' Cello Sonata, which won the Grammy Award that year. This time they recorded Brahms three piano trio works together for the first time, although it is the first time to collaborate, there is no sense of strangeness, the cooperation is very good, the superb performance brings fans infinite reverie, graceful, sounds more elegant, refined!
Yo-Yo Ma's sixth album "Singing Homesickness" with the Silk Road Orchestra won the 59th Grammy "World Music Album", which contains 13 songs of different styles, from planning to publication, "Singing Homesickness" took two years to record. It is an album full of surprises that marks the band's path towards more maturity and purity. Just like its name "Singing Nostalgia", the orchestra uses contemporary, traditional and innovative ways to share, tolerate and exchange each other's culture, and uses music to express each other's emotions to the fullest, so that music can arouse everyone's philosophy of "home" and give a new concept to "home".
This album is produced by U2 and David Bowie Gold Medal producer Kevin Keeren, with the participation of excellent Chinese musician Wu Man, "Chinese Music Festival" "Seeker" Wu Tong, and invited Grammy and Oscar-winning musicians to join in the creation, artists select suitable songs from original and traditional songs around the world, adapt them, adding musical elements from all over the world to the album, and interpreting the ever-changing "meaning of hometown" to the audience.
Yo-Yo Ma interprets the album "Singing Nostalgia" this way: "Traveling and touring with the Silk Road Ensemble, we felt that the collision of cultures contains an underlying unparalleled creativity. "The members of the Silk Road Ensemble compose, adapt and perform the music of 'Singing Nostalgia', which interprets the power of exploration, tradition extension and cultural integration."