Cellist Ma’s sampler of 11 favorite moments selected from his many past albums has been freshened with the addition of four brand new recordings made especially for the compendium. His collaborators on the various tracks include many of his friends who also happen to be some of the best soloists in the classical music world. they include John Williams, Emanuel Ax, Ennio Morricone, Isaac Stern, Eugene Ormandy, Edgar Meyer and Paquito D’Rivera.
The program includes such treasured classics as a number of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, The Swan by St.-Saens, and the Second Prelude by Gershwin. But there are two soundtrack themes by Ennio Morricone, a tango by Piazzolla, and a duet on a Japanese folk melody with shakuhachi. Speaking of world music, some of the players come from the Silk Road Project established in l998 by Ma. Another movie theme opens the sample – a selection from John William’s score to the film Memoirs of a Geisha, for which Ma was the featured cello soloist on the soundtrack.
This is one of the most romantic-sounding, melodic and unhackneyed sampler collections I have heard in some time. Sonics are excellent. Ma recently received the 2006 Sonning Music Prize – Denmark’s top music award. He is the second cellist after Mstislav Rostropovich to be so honored. He also was appointed last year as a U.N. peace envoy – the only classical music artists to receive that honor. Couldn’t happen to a nicer performer.
TrackList: WILLIAMS: Going to School (Memoirs of a Geisha), FRANCK: Allegretto from Sonata in A Major, GERSHWIN: Prelude No. 2, VIVALDI: Largo from “Winter”, “Doce de Coco” from Obrigado Brazil, KABALEVSKY: Largo from Cello Concerto No. 1, MORRICONE: Nostalgia (Cinema Paradiso), ST.-SAENS: The Swan, Swallow Song, BRAHMS: Andante from Double Concerto, PIAZZOLLA: Soledad, MIMIYA: Finnish Folk Song, First Impressions (Appalachia Waltz), MENDELSSOHN: Song Without Words, MORRICONE: Gabriel’s Oboe (The Mission)
– John Sunier
