Essential Yo Yo Ma CD by Yo Yo Ma is classical instrumental music.
Composers: Antonin Dvorák, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Antonio Vivaldi, Astor Piazzolla, Camille Saint-Saëns, César Camargo Mariano, Chinese Traditional, Claude Bolling, Cole Porter, David Wilde, Dmitry Shostakovich, Edgar Meyer, Ennio Morricone, Fillippo Azzaiolo, Frederick Loewe, Fritz Kreisler, George Gershwin, Heitor Villa-Lobos, Johann Sebastian Bach, Johannes Brahms, John Williams, Jules Massenet, Mark O'Connor, Paquito D'Rivera, Pyotr Il'yich Tchaikovsky, Sandeep Das / Indrajit Dey, Sergey Rachmaninov, Shaker Traditional, Tan Dun
Essential Yo Yo Ma Conductors: Chen Xieyang, Ennio Morricone, Kurt Masur, Lorin Maazel, Tan Dun, Ton Koopman
Orchestras: Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Roma Sinfonietta, Shanghai National Orchestra, Shanghai Symphony Orchestra
Essential Yo Yo Ma Performers: Alison Krauss, Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra, Antonio Agri, Bobby McFerrin, César Camargo Mariano, Claude Bolling, Cyro Baptista, Daniel Humair, Edgar Meyer, Emanuel Ax, Gaby Casadesus, Hector Console, Horacio Malvicino, Isaac Stern, Jaime Laredo, Jean-Luc Dayan, Jeffrey Kahane, Jon Burr, Kathryn Stott, Leonardo Marconi, Marc Fosset, Marc Michel, Mark O'Connor, Néstor Marconi, New York Philharmonic, Nilson Matta, Odair Assad, Paquito D'Rivera, Patricia Zander, Philippe Entremont, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Roger Kellaway, Roma Sinfonietta, Rosa Passos, Sergio Assad, Shanghai National Orchestra, Shanghai Percussion Ensemble, Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, Silk Road Ensemble, Stéphane Grappelli, Stephen Prutsman, Ton Koopman, Yo-Yo Ma
Running time: 153:06
REVIEW: Unlike the recent Classic Yo-Yo, really a single-disc sampler of the recorded work of our true superstar cellist, The Essential Yo-Yo Ma purports to be something more -- the Yo-Yo Ma album to own if you're going to own just one. Where Classic Yo-Yo more or less alternated track by track between Ma's straight classical and crossover music, The Essential Yo-Yo Ma devotes one of its two discs to the classics and the other to a generous sampling of music Ma has explored from around the popular sphere and around the world, including selections from his Silk Road Project and from his disc devoted to the music of Ennio Morricone.
There's a lot to be said for this approach; Ma has really maintained parallel classical and crossover careers, and when it comes to actualy mixing things up on the concert stage, others have been bolder than he. The crossover second disc is nicely sequenced and remastered, concluding with a previously unreleased arrangement of 'I Could Have Danced All Night' as a bonus track. It's a very reasonable greatest-hits group.
The first disc is less successful as a representation of Ma's abilities in traditional repertoire. No complete multi-movement works are included, and most of the performances included are of the encore type. The disc moves more or less chronologically, beginning with a group of Bach and Vivaldi melodies (though Ma's involvement with Vivaldi is underrepresented by the single Four Seasons movement included) and proceeding to Romantic and late Romantic works. Many of these pieces (Gershwin's Prelude No. 1, Rachmaninov's Vocalise, Massenet's Méditation) are arrangements, and a few could have been sacrificed to make room for the consistent warmth that Ma brings to, say, Dvorák's cello concerto. Still, there's nothing here that makes this set anything less than a good introduction to a great musician, one who connects with audiences in a way that was second nature to the famed virtuosi of the past. ~ James Manheim, All Music Guide
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