Yo Yo Ma

The follow-up album to the highly successful Appalachia Waltz collaboration, Appalachian Journey continues the combination of classical music with Appalachian, bluegrass, and American roots music in general. Yo-Yo Ma, alongside violinist Mark O'Connor and bass player Edgar Meyer, runs through a number of original compositions fusing the traditions, as well as a few old standards from the genre repertoire.

Sony Classical is excited to present the fantastic 1984 recording of Yo-Yo Ma, Seiji Ozawa, and the Boston Symphony Orchestra in a newly remastered re-release. This stellar line-up got together to record R. Strauss’ Don Quixote - indisputably the composer’s finest example of musical painting, his most daring in design and most controversial in effects - and Schoenberg’s fascinating arrangement of Monn’s Harpsichord Concerto for Cello and Orchestra.

This is a magnificent compliation even if it's only "snippets" - but what beautiful snippets they are - especially the "Romance in F minor for Violin and Orchestra" with Itzah Perlman, "Silent Woods", "Humoresque in E-flat minor with the marvelous Rudolf Firkusny (recorded not long before he died), but the frosting on the cake is Frederica von Stade's melting aria "O Moon High up in the Deep Sky" from Rusalka. (It reminded me a little of "Ebben? Ne andro lontana" Renee Fleming: By Request that gained so much traction back in the 80s as part of the soundtrack of "Diva" with Wilhelmenia Fernandez). .

The last time cellist Yo-Yo Ma teamed with bassist Edgar Meyer and mandolin player Chris Thile (of Nickel Creek and Punch Brothers fame) for a classical/bluegrass hybrid, the result was the gold-selling Songs of Joy & Peace. Here, Ma, Meyer, and Thile are joined by fiddler Stuart Duncan in a different kind of string quartet.

With a "bonus" eighth track of the Rondo alla Zingarese-Presto from Brahms' First Piano Quartet filling out this CD to a near maximal 75 minutes and 55 seconds, this disc is a steal. The Double Concerto by Brahms is an energetic and riveting yet enigmatic addition to the concerto repertoire. With a combination of solo instruments not widely used since the Baroque era due to their contrasting sounds, this work presents some unique challenges in finding the proper balance between orchestra, solo violin, and solo cello.

Continuing their explorations on Silk Road Journeys: When Strangers Meet, Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble go even deeper into cross-cultural studies on this 2005 soundtrack album. Produced for a 10-part series on Japan's NHK television network, the CD's 15 tracks are arranged in three suites, entitled Enchantment, Origins, and New Beginnings, more reflective of inherent musical affinities than of the way the music was used in the program. The musicians tap into the variously overlapping musical styles of lands stretching from China and India to Iran and Turkey, and the arrangements by Zhao Jiping and Zhao Lin include a mix of instruments from around the world, to add greater color and sonic dimensions. The album's exotic and meditative qualities may attract fans of both international and new age music, though there is perhaps little crossover appeal for Ma's classical devotees.

Focusing solely on American composers (New Yorkers, for that matter), Yo-yo Ma recorded an album with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra that reprises works from Stephen Albert, Bela Bartok, and Ernest Bloch. After being pampered by his cross-genre releases (Hush, Soul of the Tango, etc), some listeners might not actually care to hear a straightforward classical album, considering the skill with which Ma can play the cello and transform it into an instrument suitable for whatever style he's performing on a given date.

Performing on the Baroque cello (outfitted with gut strings and without an endpin, making it so that the performer has to clutch the instrument between his/her legs), Yo-Yo Ma delivers the warm, listener-friendly classical music that he has become known for. Supported by conductor Ton Koopman's period Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra, Ma presents a wholly unusual interpretation of some of Bach's better known Baroque works, as well as some lesser known pieces by Italian composer Luigi Boccherini.