Yo-Yo Ma - Appassionato (2007)

Composer: Jacob do Bandolim, Johannes Brahms, Cesar Franck, George Gershwin, Dmitry Kabalevsky, et al.
Conductor: Claudio Abbado, Ennio Morricone, Eugene Ormandy, Ton Koopman
Performer: Yo-Yo Ma, Paquito D'Rivera
Year Of Release: January 9, 2007
Label: Sony Classics
Genre: Classical
Format: MP3
Quality: 320 kbps I 44.1 Khz I Stereo
Total Time: 1 h 13 min 36 sec
Total Size: 173 mb

Amazon.com
Any new compilation CD starring Yo-Yo Ma is certain to please. This master of the cello takes the listener through so many types of music that the ear and mind never tire. The present selection is billed as a sort of "musical autobiography," and, indeed, it gives us a tour of Ma's musical life. The Silk Road Project is represented by Zhao's "Swallow Song," with its eerie, fascinating soundscape (specially re-recorded for this CD). We also accompany Ma on his excursions into the world of the baroque cello with Vivaldi or of the Finnish folk song (by Mamiya, a first recording). There are Gershwin's languid Second Prelude, with its intimations of the song "Summertime," and an all-new recording of a nine-minute heart-breaker by Astor Piazzolla ("Soledad"). Ma also gives us more familiar Brahms, Franck, and Saint-Saens. The compilation's mellow 65 minutes offer relaxing, beautiful music, all exquisitely played. Ma is joined by the best: Emanuel Ax, Kathryn Stott, John Williams (who plays piano on his own "Going to School" from Memoirs of a Geisha), Isaac Stern, and Claudio Abbado. This is a veritable Who's Who of superb musicians.
--Robert Levine

Tracklist
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1. Going To School (2:47)
2. Allegretto poco mosso (from Sonata in A Major for Violin and Piano) (Version for Cello and Piano) (6:03)
3. Andante con moto e poco rubato (from Three Preludes) (3:44)
4. Largo from "Winter" (from "The Four Seasons") (Violin solo performed on Cello) (1:47)
5. Doce de coco (5:14)
6. Largo (from Cello Concerto No. 1 in G Minor) (5:56)
7. Cinema Paradiso: Nostalgia (from "Giuseppe Tornatore Suite") (1:53)
8. The Swan (from "The Carnival of Animals" Chamber Version) (3:10)
9. Yanzi (Swallow Song) (5:23)
10. Andante (from Concerto for Violin, Cello and Orchestra "Double" Concerto) (7:24)
11. Soledad (9:06)
12. Mikin Pekko (from "Five Finnish Folk Songs") (1:58)
13. First Impressions (4:12)
14. Song Without Words (4:08)
15. The Mission: Gabriel's Oboe (2:29)
16. Andante Cantabile for Cello Solo and String Orchestra (8:22)