Yo-Yo Ma - Merci For Cello&Piano - Import CD

Credits:

Yo-Yo Ma

Description:

Yo-Yo Ma, the greatest cellist of our time, and Kathryn Stott's latest recording are now available. Yo-Yo Ma, the greatest cellist of our time, and his longtime collaborator, the talented UK composer Kathryn Stott, will release their latest album, "Merci," worldwide on Friday, October 25. The program features works by his teacher Camille Saint-Saëns, Nadia Boulanger, who studied with Fauré, and Pauline Viardot, who was a contemporary of his sister Lili Boulanger. Yo-Yo Ma and Stott have a connection to Fauré through Louise Vosgeltien and Nadia Boulanger, who studied with them when they were students respectively. In this latest album, they reveal the extent of Fauré's influence and inspiration by featuring works for strings and piano by composers with whom Fauré had a close relationship.Merci" begins with a lullaby from Op. 16, and alternates with works by his student Nadia Boulanger, his teacher Camille Saint-Saens, contemporary composer Lili Boulanger, and Pauline Viardot, who was active in the Salon at the time. Stott, who is known as a specialist in modern French works and is renowned for his profound interpretations and performances, recounts an episode from his childhood at the Menuhin School, which was the source of the idea for this recording project. Nadia was a student of Gabriel Fauré, and I had the wonderful opportunity to play Fauré's Boat Song No. 4 in front of her when I was 10 years old. Nadia, who actually studied with Fauré, heard me play, and since then Fauré's music has never left my heart. Among the artists who profess to have studied directly with or been greatly influenced by Faure are Quincy Jones, Aaron Copland, Philip Glass, and Leonard Bernstein. Yo-Yo Ma and Stott began recording together in 1985.These include the smash hits "Yo-Yo Ma Plays Piazzolla" and "Obliged Brazil," which led the era and won a Grammy Award in the category of Best Classical Crossover Album. In recent years, he has released the 2020 Songs of Comfort and Hope (an album born from a project in which Yo-Yo Ma continued to transmit performance videos to the world from his home as #SongsofComfort in March 2020, just as the pandemic began), 2015's Songs of an Arc of Life" was released. Stott has announced his retirement from recording and performing at the end of this year, and "Merci" will be released as a special chapter in their irreplaceable 40-year collaboration. Sony Music