Portrait of Yo-Yo Ma

Yo-Yo Ma - Simply Baroque II ~ Bach & Boccherini / ABO, Koopman This is the sequel to Yo-Yo Ma's wildly successful Simply Baroque, released last year. Again joined by the excellent Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra, with Ton Koopman conducting from the harpsichord, he plays with a baroque bow on his 1712 Stradivarius cello "reconfigured" as a baroq...	Yo-Yo Ma Plays Bach: Sonatas: Music for You	Simply Baroque	Classic Yo-Yo Except for one "previously unreleased" recording and two new ones, this is a compilation of segments taken from older Yo-Yo Ma CDs, perhaps to whet listeners' appetite to hear the entire records. The disc represents a triumph of performance over material. The program consists of ...	Bach: The 6 Unaccompanied Cello Suites
The Dvorak Album This compilation of music by Dvorak played by Yo-Yo Ma is just beautiful. Ma seems to understand just when Dvorak wants to be super-Romantic and sappy and when he is in fact being merely his usual expressive self. The former comes into bloom with the Slavonic Dance, in which he's...	Paris La Belle Époque The cello has often been called the king of string instruments because its range encompasses all four vocal registers. Nevertheless, cellists are always complaining of the comparative paucity of their literature, and feel justified in raiding more fertile fields. Even Yo-Yo Ma, w...	Hush The idea here was to put two masters together--one classical cellist, one improvisational singer/sound-effects performer--and voilà! instant amazing, unique, hip--and, hopefully, hit--record. The intriguing setup was to see what would happen when each led the other through th...	Solo Born in Paris of Chinese parents, educated and anchored in America, performing on every continent, Yo-Yo Ma is a true citizen of the world by heritage, disposition, and choice. Dauntlessly adventurous, he has explored musical styles from baroque and classical to bluegrass, jazz, ...	Vivaldi's Cello The great Yo-Yo Ma has recently (in addition to his world music explorations) moved to the baroque cello, a so-called period instrument, and his transition has been remarkably smooth. He is indeed a musical polyglot, and this CD finds him solidly in the heart of the Baroque perio...

simply the best
the most expensive CD i bought (SGD 26!) but certainly the best! paganini's caprice number 10 is the perfect example of yo-yo's magic with the strings. haydn's concerto was cleanly done with the tones so crisp.i have fallen in love with yo-yo ma's music because of this CD.

classic Yo-Yo
This disc is sort of Yo-Yo's virtuoso collection. The CD is comprised largely of fairly mindless music, but at least Ma manages to make things interesting. Most of these works are played extremely well - his cello arrangement of the Dvorak-Kriesler "Songs my mother taught me" is stunning, and if the octaves (and a bit of other passagework) in the Paganani 24th caprice are out of tune, that track still serves as a tribute to his incredible technical skill. Still, some of this music (such as "The Swan") is too overplayed to be truly enjoyable at this point, and now that he has two separate sets of complete Bach Suites released (neither of which I'd recommend), the last thing anyone needs to hear is an early recording of the Bourrees from Suite 3.The highlight is his Haydn D major concerto, which is given a simple treatment here, and it works. So crisp and clean is his playing that little else is required, from him or the orchestra, and the result is an incredibly refined performance.

Beautiful music, great artist!
This CD is super. I have heard it dozens of times; it is still relaxing, fresh, and stunning.Buy it, love it.

Classical Listener
This music is a perfect match of excellent recording quality and an incredible performer. The CD has some of Ma's most interesting and revered performances. If you are unsure about this recording I insist you buy it, whether you are a cellist or a classical listener. It is needed in your classical collection.

Brilliant
Yo-Yo Ma is simply captivating. There are no words to describe the power he is able to put over a listener. He is not of this world, and his music takes the breath away. There is not one "Ma note" that is lacking in skill, emotion, or personal interpretation.