Monday, May 14, 2012 ![]() |
To purchase CD's or downloads of any of Yo-Yo Ma's recordings, visit Ariama.
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Yo-Yo and Elmo |
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Grace and Gratitude |
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A Neglected Masterpiece |
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An Encounter of Great Minds |
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"I just try to play in tune.” |
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An All-Encompassing Approach His musical performances are brilliant, but over the past few weeks I’ve had a great time listening to the words of Yo-Yo Ma. As I’ve prepared interview excerpts for broadcast during this “Month of Ma,” it’s fascinating to hear his take on so many things: from caring for his cello to working with vocalist Bobby McFerrin and violinist Mark O’Connor to the enormous value of working with Mr. Rogers and Sesame Street. Through it all, what shines through is the joy he feels from sharing music with others, and way in which he integrates all these various aspects of his life: “I’m not good at thinking in categories,” he says. “I don’t think about, ‘this is classical music, and this is now contemporary music or adult contemporary music, or baroque music’ – it’s all a form of expression. …I think what all musicians want to do is to be inside the music, is to be in the moment.” It’s an all-encompassing approach to his art, reflected perfectly in “The Essential Yo-Yo Ma” - a great feast of special moments in music! - Alan McLellan |
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A Latter-Day Basie |
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Classical Music Ambassador |
Friday, September 19, 2014 ![]() |
A quartet of musicians sit before sheets of music with instruments in hand, casually dressed and waiting for instruction. A rehearsal like any other, except the human body is the metronome; each musician is wearing a stethoscope strapped to his or her chest, following their own heartbeat or breath to keep time or, sometimes, that of another performer.
This scene personifies the concept behind Richard Reed Parry’s new album Music for Heart and Breath. Released on Deutsche Grammophon, with contributions from the iconic new music ensemble Kronos Quartet, pop and classical crossover ensemble yMusic, and avant-garde composer Nico Muhly, the compositions and various instrumental configurations explore the notion that the human body can dictate how music is performed and how we interact with it.
Parry is not a name associated with classical music. The Canadian multi-instrumentalist is a member of the Grammy Award-winning rock band Arcade Fire, in which his musical voice might emerge from guitar, double bass, or accordion. Music for Heart and Breath is a reflection of Parry’s desire to make music that reacts with the mind and the body through rhythmic, haunting compositions in an experiment that takes us beyond genre or tradition.
For more information and to purchase this recording, visit ArkivMusic.
Thursday, January 30, 2014 ![]() |
Sunday, January 26, 2014 ![]() |
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Portrait of Mozart attributed to Barbara Krafft, via Wikimedia Commons |
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Monday at 8pm on 99.5 WCRB Christoph Eschenbach performs Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 12 as both soloist and conductor with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, in concert at Symphony Hall: ![]() |
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Mozart Downloads from the WCRB Classical Performance Podcast The Ma'alot Wind Quintet plays selections from Mozart's Cosí fan tutte: ![]() The Arcadia Players perform the chamber version of Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 12 and a selection from Exultate Jubilate, with soprano Kristen Watson: ![]() |
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Mozart on Café Europa, weekdays at noon on 99.5 WCRB Hear recent concert performances from the great halls of Europe: Last week: Symphony No. 41, "Jupiter" Finnish Radio Symphony Violin Concerto No. 3 Nicola Benedetti, violin Piano Concerto No. 22 Jonathan Biss, piano Coming up: Tue. - Symphony No. 21 L'Orfeo Baroque Orchestra Wed. - Serenade, K. 375 from the Ittingen Pentecost Festival Thu. - Piano Trio No. 3 Wanderer Trio Fri. - Clarinet Concerto Martin Fröst, clarinet ![]() |
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More from our Fraser Performance Studio A Far Cry plays Mozart's Symphony No. 40: ![]() |
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More from the Boston Symphony Orchestra Paul Lewis is the soloist in Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 25: ![]() Isabelle Faust is the soloist in Mozart's Violin Concerto No. 5: ![]() Christoph Eschenbach conducts Mozart's Symphony No. 41, the "Jupiter": ![]() |
Friday, December 20, 2013 ![]() |
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Dvorák: Symphony No. 9, "From the New World"Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Andris Nelsons, conductorThe next Music Director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra seems to push the limits of his interpretations just to the brink without distorting the composer's vision. Get a glimpse of Boston's musical future in this recording from one of the great orchestra of Europe.
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Kaufmann Sings Wagner
Jonas Kaufmann, tenor; Orchestra of Deutsche Oper Berlin, Donald Runnicles, conductor |
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Bach: Sonatas and Partitas, Vol. 1
Chris Thile, mandolin |
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Brahms: Violin ConcertoLeonidas Kavakos, violin; Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Riccardo Chailly, conductor
The Greek violinist emphasizes the fascination Brahms had with Hungarian folk music in this performance of one of the pillars of the violin repertoire, pairing it with a selection of Hungarian Dances by the German composer and two short works by Hungarian composer Béla Bartók.
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Peterhouse Partbooks, Vol. 3: Ludford and MasonBlue Heron, Scott Metcalfe, directorOne of Boston's many local groups to have attained international stature, Blue Heron have gradually been recording near-forgotten music from the English Renaissance. Metcalfe's emphasis on using the text of this choral music as his a guide to interpretation lends an immediacy that transcends the simple, glowing beauty music from this period often elicits.
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The Soviet Experience, Vol. 4: Shostakovich and SchnittkePacifica QuartetThe fall of the Iron Curtain has, in the minds of some, led to the relegation of much of Shostakovich's music to a category defined by its time. But the hyper-capable Pacifica Quartet shows that the composer's string quartets, along with many of those by his peers, speak to our own time and society in continually powerful ways.
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AutographAlexandre Tharaud, pianoWith a calendar based primarily in Europe, this French pianist may not be well-known in the US ... yet. In this survey of 23 short works, he exposes a soulfulness in music that might otherwise be consigned to light-weight encore status. |
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Bartók: Violin ConcertosIsabelle Faust, violin; Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Daniel Harding, conductorFaust has an ability to inhabit the particular cultural and personal context of each work she performs. In Bartók's Second Concerto, we hear the composer's fusion of folk music source material and advanced 20th-century concert language through a sound that's at times dark and rich, and at others a steel wire. But in the First, which Bartok wrote before fully incorporating those folk influences, and in a time of intense personal turmoil, Faust's sound is plush, reminiscent of an older, pre-Great War universe of unchecked passion.
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Mysterious BoundariesTony McManus, guitarThe title of this recording could have just as easily been "No Boundaries." McManus, born in Scotland and a resident of Canada, pivots from his well-deserved reputation for enlivening Celtic music into works by Bach, Monteverdi, Couperin, and Satie, making us wonder why anything has to be categorized as "classical" at all. |
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Song of a Czech: Dvorák and Janácek for Men's VoicesCantusAntonín Dvorák and Leos Janácek are each popularly known for particular kinds of works. Dvorák for his hefty, rustic symphonies and folk-infused chamber works, and Janácek for blazing orchestral works and biting operas that point to a modernist world. A rarely heard and touching intimacy from these Czech composers of two different generations is delivered by the Minnesota-based men's choir in this recording. |
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Strauss Tone PoemsPittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Manfred Honeck, conductorStrauss's tone poems no longer test the capabilities of orchestral players to the same degree they did when new. That in no way, however, diminishes the virtuosity of great orchestras who perform them. When combined with insightful interpretations that take the performances beyond the virtuosic, the results are thrilling. Honeck and Pittsburgh deliver on all counts. |
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Eisler: Lieder with PianoMatthias Goerne, baritone; Ensemble Resonanz; Thomas Larcher, pianoBorn of a time of unprecedented turmoil, Hanns Eisler's songs speak to the pain and despair of Europe's condition in the 1930's, all while maintaining a glimmer of hope. Goerne's rich baritone voice humanizes these rarely heard works. |
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Adagio: A Consideration of a Serious MatterEnsemble Caprice, Matthias Maute, directorIn a compilation of works spanning the Renaissance to modern times, the early music ensemble opens with a "Miserere" by Bohemian baroque composer Jan Dismas Zelenka and turns to Satie, Chopin, Pärt, and others before concluding with Charles Ives's "Unanswered Question." It all happens with such ease and fluency that you forget about the separation of time and space among the composers, transforming perception into an experience of pure music.
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Thursday, December 12, 2013 ![]() |