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Artist: Yo-Yo Ma
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Yo-Yo Ma:

Nature at Play - Bach's Cello Suite No. 1

J.S. Bach’s Suites for Unaccompanied Cello have been a touchstone and a source of inspiration for YO-YO MA since he learned the first notes of Suite No. 1 at age four. Today, Sony Classical announces that the cellist’s 1983 recording of the suites – his very first – will be released as a new, three-LP collector’s edition. Available worldwide on October 20 and for preorder now, J.S. Bach: 6 Suites for Unaccompanied Cello – The 1983 Sessions celebrates the 40th anniversary of the original recordings with three newly-pressed picture discs enclosed in a tri-fold jacket featuring exclusive, never-before-seen photos from the original recording session as well as an essay by its producer, Richard Einhorn.

Today, Sony Classical also releases Nature at Play: Bach’s Cello Suite No. 1, a digital EP that exemplifies Ma’s ongoing exploration of Bach’s music and its contemporary relevance – listen here. Featuring Bach’s Cello Suite No. 1 recorded live in the foothills of The Great Smoky Mountains in Tennessee as part of Ma’s ongoing “Our Common Nature” initiative, Nature at Play asks us to consider the ways that culture can connect us to the natural world and to each other in pursuit of a common future. Ma has pledged to donate his earnings from the release to EarthPercent, a charity that helps artists and the music industry support the most impactful organizations currently addressing the global climate emergency. Accompanying the EP is a video of the live recording, featuring Ma’s performance of Bach’s Cello Suite No. 1 in its entirety – watch here.

J.S. Bach’s Suites for Unaccompanied Cello, composed between 1717 and 1723, have been at the pinnacle of the solo cello repertoire ever since Pablo Casals rediscovered and began performing them, well over a century ago. Across three impeccable recordings released by Sony Classical and dozens of live performances around the world, the suites have become a kind of artistic signature for Ma, who won the first of his 19 GRAMMY® Awards for the 1983 recording. Though Ma has recorded the suites twice more, at pivotal moments in his career, it was this 1983 recording that confirmed to the world the singular breadth, depth, and promise of his artistry.

“Ma, of course, has his own long history with the suites,” the Los Angeles Times critic Mark Swed wrote when the cellist did “the impossible” by playing all six suites in one evening before a hushed audience of almost 17,000 at the Hollywood Bowl in 2017. He recalled the revelation of Ma’s 1983 recording as “fresh, vibrant, immaculately played.”

In his liner note for this new edition, producer Richard Einhorn wrote, “Listening to the Suites now, I fell in love with Yo-Yo Ma’s interpretations all over again. The first word I wrote down for this essay was ‘exuberance,’ an exuberance in abundant evidence right from the start … Yo-Yo would go on to re-record the Bach Suites in both audio and video; they are all equally remarkable achievements. But naturally, this version remains my favorite: I hear so much of my long-ago friend’s ebullient personality in these marvelous interpretations of some of the greatest music ever written.”

Yo-Yo Ma:

Notes for the Future

Cellist Yo-Yo Ma releases his new album, Notes for the Future available now on Sony Classical.   Notes for the Future brings together extraordinary artists from five continents: across nine tracks, Ma joins Angélique Kidjo, Mashrou' Leila, Tunde Olaniran, Jeremy Dutcher, Andrea Motis, ABAO, Lila Downs, and Marlon Williams to explore our fears and hopes, reminding us that the future is ours to shape, together. The album captures the full range of human emotion, from the lament of the album's lead offering, a collaborative version of "Blewu" with Angélique Kidjo (named "Africa's premier diva" by TIME), to the energetic prayer for home in "Ha'oud (I Will Return)" from Ma and Beirut-based rock band Mashrou' Leila (dubbed "the Arab world's most influential independent band" by Financial Times). 

Yo-Yo Ma:

Appassionato

Yo-Yo Ma's latest recording for Sony Classical, Appassionato, is a journey through some of the world's most romantic music-from Mendelssohn to Gershwin to John Williams. An exclusive Sony Classical artist, and with a CD catalogue of astonishing breadth and depth, Yo-Yo Ma has consistently been one of the top-selling classical artists in the world. His recordings have earned him a total of fifteen Grammy Awards.

Yo-Yo Ma:

30 Years Outside the Box

Comprising ninety discs, Yo-Yo Ma: 30 Years Outside the Box is a salute to Yo-Yo Ma's monumental musical achievements and to his 30-year legacy with Sony Masterworks. The exciting story of his life and work is eloquently told in a quality hard bound book of over 312 pages, lavishly illustrated with more than 150 color and black-and-white archival photos, original album artwork, liner notes and credits. Further enriching the story of this musical giant is a warm and insightful foreword by his longtime friend and esteemed fellow artist, pianist Emanuel Ax, as well as a lengthy, insightful essay by noted critic Richard Dyer.

Yo-Yo Ma:

The Essential Yo-Yo Ma

An Essential Collection From Yo-Yo Ma. One Of The Most Popular Musicians Of Our Time! 34 Incredible tracks spanning Yo-Yo Ma's entire career - From his Academy Award winning performance on: Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and his Grammy Winning Soul Of The Tango: to his latest Silk Road Ensemble recording: Beyond the Horizon.

Yo-Yo Ma:

Songs Of Joy & Peace

Imagine a party, a musical party inspired by the holiday season.  A party that celebrates the universal hopes, dreams and joy animating seasonal festivals the world over – Christmas, Hanukkah, Eid al-Adha, Kwanzaa, Yule and New Year's Day.  That is what brought Yo-Yo Ma together with a remarkable group of friends to create Yo-Yo Ma & Friends Songs of Joy & Peace, a new album of songs from Sony BMG Masterworks that will be available Tuesday, October 14.

"It started with the idea of a party, a party built around the concept of joy and the infinite varieties of joy to be found in the world," Ma recalls.  "But joy can't exist in our world without the comfort of peace.  As we all draw closer and closer together in this world, nothing is more important.  So as much as the music in this album is about joy, it is also about peace, about the two operating in tandem.  I am really excited to know that I have all these fabulous colleagues who think the same way."

"Holidays are always about going home and being with friends and family," remarked Diana Krall.  "And so wanting to capture that, I think, is what we did today.  We played together and it would have been weird if it was done in any other way.  One of the best days of my life was today with Yo-Yo Ma."  And Chris Botti went on to say: "The sound of the two instruments [trumpet and cello] is very, very beautiful and haunting together and Yo-Yo brings the joy.  He's got enough joy for everyone.  I'm just incredibly honored to be given an invitation to the party and thrilled to be here."

Songs of Joy & Peace will be available online and in stores on Tuesday, October 14. The recording has been chosen as a featured holiday selection at Starbucks and will also be sold at select Starbucks locations nationwide.

Also available is a special deluxe edition of Songs of Joy & Peace featuring an expanded booklet, a CD of the album including bonus tracks, and an exclusive DVD showcasing five music videos of Yo-Yo Ma joining forces with guest artists James Taylor ("Here Comes the Sun"), Alison Krauss ("The Wexford Carol"), Ren?e Fleming ("Touch the Hand of Love"), Diana Krall ("You Couldn't Be Cuter") and Chris Botti ("My Favorite Things")   In addition, the
Songs of Joy & Peace bonus DVD will premiere a behind-the-scenes 60-minute video documenting the making of the album.

Yo-Yo Ma:

Salonen Cello Concerto w/Los Angeles Philharmonic

On March 8, Sony Classical will release a recording of Esa-Pekka Salonen's cello concerto featuring Yo-Yo Ma and the Los Angeles Philharmonic under Salonen's baton. Co-commissioned for Ma by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic, the Barbican Centre, and Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Salonen's cello concerto premiered on March 9, 2017 with Salonen himself conducting the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Ma and the concerto then came to the New York Philharmonic on March 17, 2017, with then-Music Director Alan Gilbert conducting; Ma and Gilbert continued the premiere season with performances at London's Barbican Centre and Hamburg's Elbphilharmonie. This recording captures the live performance in Los Angeles on February 8, 2018.

Yo-Yo Ma:

Six Evolutions - Bach Cello Suites

YO-YO MA releases Six Evolutions – Bach: Cello Suites. The new album from Sony Classical marks Ma's third and final recording of the works and celebrates his nearly six-decade-long relationship with the music.  Six Evolutions – Bach: Cello Suites is available to stream and download now on all digital service providers and for purchase as a 3-LP 180-gram vinyl set.

As Ma's "constant musical companions" for almost 60 years, Bach's Cello Suites first entered the cellist's life at the age of four, when he learned the first measure of the Prélude to Suite No. 1 under his father's instruction.  His Grammy Award-winning first complete recording of the suites was made in his late twenties. His second, Inspired by Bach, was released in his early forties and recorded alongside a multi-genre, collaborative exploration of the works. Both previous recordings of the Cello Suites, also on Sony Classical, became landmarks in classical discography, as well as milestones in Ma's musical life.  Since then these works have been a through line in his life, guiding him through times of happiness as well as hardship, prompting Ma to ask, "What power does this music possess that even today, after three hundred years, it continues to help us navigate through troubled times?"

Yo-Yo Ma:

Yo-Yo Ma plays Bach

CBS/Sony Classical has been accompanying superstar cellist Yo-Yo Ma for decades on his journey through the unsurpassed works written for his instrument by Johann Sebastian Bach. The label is now pleased to announce the release of important landmarks from that journey, Yo-Yo Ma Plays Bach, on a single CD. Ma's first recording of Bach's six Solo Suites, which went on to win the Grammy? for "Best Classical Instrumental Performance" and is represented here by the Sarabande from the Sixth Suite, took place in 1982. In the same year, Yo-Yo Ma recorded Bach's complete sonatas for viola da gamba with harpsichordist Kenneth Cooper which was hailed by Gramophone as "intelligent and expressive."