Cellist Yo-Yo Ma and his longtime friend, pianist Kathryn Stott, have just released a new collaborative album, Songs from the Arc of Life, on Sony Classical. And we have a copy of the CD, with the booklet signed by Yo-Yo Ma, to give away. See below for how to enter to win.
Bookended by two settings of the traditional “Ave Maria” – by Bach/Gounod and by Schubert – Songs from the Arc of Life presents a set of sublime pieces including many enduring favorites. Yo-Yo Ma describes it as “an album of music we absolutely love, pieces that express the context of a life, of our lives. Childhood, adolescence, young adulthood, middle age, old age: what do they sound like?”
About the title Songs from the Arc of Life, adds Stott, “Once we arrived at the idea, we began to see a beautiful story, a journey through life’s experiences.”
Together with Brahms’s “Lullaby,” Saint-Saëns’s “The Swan,” Dvořák’s “Songs My Mother Taught Me,” Gade’s “Jalousie,” and Gershwin’s “Prelude No. 1,” the selection includes works by Debussy, Delius, Elgar, Fauré, Gershwin, Grieg, Kriesler, Messaien, Schumann, Sibelius and Tchaikovsky. It also features a piece by contemporary composer Giovanni Sollima, a friend and colleague of both artists. Many are pieces Ma and Stott have frequently performed but never recorded.
This year the world’s most famous contemporary cellist turns 60. The milestone, Ma says, “has me wondering what the future might bring, but also reflecting on what has passed. Kathy and I have known one another since we were in our 20s. We have a shared performing history and thousands of conversations and experiences and we’re delighted, through Songs from the Arc of Life, to share them with you.”
Songs from the Arc of Life is available now at Amazon and iTunes. Enter to win a signed copy of new Yo-Yo Ma and Kathryn Stott album Songs from the Arc of Life from Blogcritics one of two ways:
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