Yo Yo Ma 6 Chello Suites

While it is pleasurable to hear three of the world's best-known virtuosos playing together with such extraordinary sympathy and enthusiasm, the actual performances by violinist Itzhak Perlman, cellist Yo-Yo Ma, and pianist Emanuel Ax on this disc of Mendelssohn's two piano trios are merely so-so. Each alone sounds marvelous Perlman with his sweet intonation, Ma with his lyrical phrasing, and Ax with his sonorous tone but together they are not quite the sum of their parts.

This piece, a divertimento for string trio (violin, viola, and cello, was composed in 1788, the same year as the E-flat, G-minor, and Jupiter symphonies and the little C-major piano sonata, four of Mozart's best-known and greatest pieces. This divertimento is relatively little-known, yet it is the equal of those far-better-known pieces. Mozart was at the absolute height of his powers as a composer.

Lots of composers fall head over heels for the cello, and Bolling's suite for classical cellist Yo-Yo Ma indicates that he finds this instrument a particularly noble, expressive vehicle for his classical/jazz musings. The distinctive Bolling formula still has plenty of mileage here, this time with a more expansive lyrical bent and no cutesy detours. "Baroque In Rhythm," in particular, sounds very fresh with its interpolations of boogie-woogie and ragtime amidst the Bachian counterpoint. "Romantique" is enlivened by some Brubeck-like chording and swinging from Bolling, and "Galop" has real panache. However, despite some inspired passages, the yawning, overlong lyrical stretches of "Concertante" and "Ballade" may try the patience of some jazz listeners.