Aug 26, 2009 |
Yo-Yo Ma, Cello Suite No. 5
Yo-Yo Ma, a now household name and almost synonymous with the word cello has an incredible, jawdropping resume. He began playing at age four, performed for John F. Kennedy at age seven, and performed under Leonard Bernstein at age eight. Any number of those things could easily propel a gifted young musician into classical stardom but he used his early stardom to fuel his unconventional later musical endeavors.
Ma is simultaneously more talented, more humble, and willing to do more things than you will have the opportunity to say no to. Musically, he’s collaborated with nearly every classical group you could list but it his collaborations do not end there – he also collaborates with contemporary western and eastern musicians.
He also has done work outside of the realm commonly associate with cello; he’s worked with Bobby McFerrin, been featured on the Muppet Show, The Simpsons, played for Barack Obama’s inaguration, and even performed with “non-musicians” such as Stephen Colbert and Condoleezza Rice. In the piece below you can hear his overflowing happiness – the Yo-Yo Ma delivering beautiful music to the world, happy, joyous, belated.
This is excerpted from another Bach Cello Suite, No. 6 – Menuett
The recording at the focus of this post is the Bach Cello Suite No. 5, in C-minor. It is built as all of Bach’s Suites are: 6 movements, Prelude, Allemande, Courante, Sarabande, Menuett, and Gigue. These movements stand for different types of fashionable dances, each denoting a different speed, musical fluidity, and mood.
There is another side to Ma.
In the video below Ma will perform not only a piece from the album featured in this article, but the same piece he chose to play on September 11th, 2002 at the site of the World Trade Center. He was the first performer. He will begin to explain the Sarabande to you and lose himself in the music before he can finish the last word in his sentence but after a little more explanation, he will perform. The cellist he mentions is Pablo Casals.
