Songs from the Arc of Life
Yo-Yo Ma (cello)
Kathryn Stott (piano)
rec. Mechanics Hall, Worcester, Massachusetts, 28-31 March 2015
SONY CLASSICS 88875 103162 [67.56]
It is almost a commonplace to say so nowadays, but the lack of adventure
on the part of the major record companies is becoming endemic. This
is on a scale that is amazing when one considers what they have given
us in the past. They are becoming increasingly intent on recycling their
back catalogues - admittedly welcome, and a valuable exercise in its
own right. As a result their new releases are painfully reliant on what
is perceived by their bean-counters to be guaranteed commercial success.
The artists, increasingly few, who they have under exclusive contract,
are thereby confined to the most basic repertoire with little chance
to move outside the well-trodden paths that have ensured sales in the
past. This denies us the chance to hear them in more obscure works to
which they could indubitably lend lustre. This conservative approach
to new releases is rendered even more obvious when you look at the listings
from what used to be described as the minor independent companies. Their
willingness to explore new avenues constitutes by far the greater amount
of interest for those who already have recordings of the core repertoire
and are looking for something different.
This recital by Yo-Yo Ma and Kathryn Stott would seem to fall firmly
into the category of a disc conceived with commercial sales alone in
mind, and be damned to those collectors whose tastes extend further
afield. The contents, including such works as Saint-Saëns’s ubiquitous
swan, the Bach/Gounod Ave Maria, Brahms Lullaby and
so on, certainly seem to confirm that impression. We already have in
the catalogues, for example, Yo-Yo Ma’s recordings of the Saint-Saëns,
the Fauré Papillon and the arrangement of the Gershwin piano
prelude. Surprisingly some of the more obvious items here have not been
available previously in versions by the cellist; and he and Kathryn
Stott have managed to slip some rarities past the commercially savvy
producers, so the results do have a value over and above the simple
desire to please the fans. It is excellent, for example, to have the
performance of the neglected Delius Romance which so far as
I am aware Ma has never recorded before. This is one of the only three
tracks on this CD which runs to over five minutes, however, and the
shortness of the items does tend to create a rather bitty impression,
with Fauré the only composer represented by more than one piece. The
jump in styles from Elgar’s Salut d’amour to the
arrangement of the Gershwin First Prelude is particularly unfortunate.
Apart from the Delius Romance, the only other two pieces on
this disc which run to any length are the movement from Messiaen’s
Quartet for the end of Time, a particularly enterprising selection
for this generally ‘popular’ recital (and superbly performed),
and the item drawn from Giovanni Sollima’s music for a remake
of the film ll bell’Antonio, the only work here from
a living composer. Sollima
is himself a cellist, and his writing
obviously suits the instrument superbly. The music itself is a rapt
contemplation of a long-drawn melody, which in the central section builds
up a real head of steam with some beautifully inflected turns which
evoke Jewish idioms; and it doesn’t pall or seem a moment too
long. It sent me in search of the complete film score, but the only
recording I could find was that of the music for the 1960 original film
by Piero Piccioni, which was decidedly less impressive. It would be
excellent if the whole of Sollima’s score could be made available.
Otherwise this disc is really a recital of encore pieces, any of which
would be welcome at the end of a recital of more substantial items but
which seemed to me somewhat indigestible en masse. I paused
the disc a few times during my listening, returning to it again a while
later, which allowed my palate to clear between pieces. It need hardly
be said that Yo-Yo Ma and Kathryn Stott perform all these items beautifully.
The recorded acoustic also is superb, and the recording is superbly
managed. The cello is naturally forward in the balance, since the piano
parts here are mostly fairly straightforward accompaniments. Stott is
well in the picture when necessary, as in the tango Jalousie
by Jacob Gade where Ma is delightfully sly and almost sleazy in his
delivery of the well-known melody.
The booklet notes are quite substantial, consisting for the most part
of a conversation between the two performers in which they discuss each
individual work in some detail. For some of the song arrangements we
are also provided with translations of the original texts. What we are
not told is who was responsible for the arrangements which feature so
strongly in the recital, but I presume they are the work of Yo-Yo Ma
himself. They are all well managed, the Sibelius song being particularly
effective and the Debussy even more so.
Paul Corfield Godfrey
Track listing
Johann Sebastian BACH (1685-1750)/Charles GOUNOD (1818-1893)
Ave Maria [2.43]
Johannes BRAHMS (1833-1897)
Lullaby, Op.49/4 [1.50]
Antonin DVOŘÁK (1841-1904)
Songs my mother taught me, Op.55/4 [1.57]
Gabriel FAURÉ (1845-1924)
Papillon, Op.77 [2.49]
Après un rêve, Op.7/1 [2.40]
Jacob GADE (1879-1963)
Tango Jalousie [2.49]
Robert SCHUMANN (1810-1856)
Vanitas Vanitatum, Op.102/1 [3.03]
Jean SIBELIUS (1865-1957)
Was it a dream?, Op.37/4 [2.17]
Edward ELGAR (1857-1934)
Salut d’amour, Op.12 [2.40]
George GERSHWIN (1898-1937)
Prelude No 1 [1.51]
Frederick DELIUS (1862-1934)
Romance for cello and piano [6.25]
Fritz KREISLER (1875-1962)
La Gitana [3.33]
Giovanni SOLLIMA (b.1962)
Il bell’Antonio: Tema III [7.35]
Camille SAINT-SAËNS (1835-1921)
The swan [2.54]
Edvard GRIEG (1843-1907)
The wounded heart, Op.34/1 [2.30]
Pyotr Ilyich TCHAIKOVSKY (1840-1893)
Valse sentimentale, Op.51/6 [2.17]
Olivier MESSIAEN (1908-1992)
Quartet for the end of Time: Louange a l’éternité de Jésus [10.18]
Claude DEBUSSY (1862-1918)
Beau soir [2.31]
Franz SCHUBERT (1797-1828)
Ave Maria, Op.52/6 [4.15]
