Yo-Yo Ma & Kathryn Stott - Songs From The Arc Of Life (2015) [Hi-Res]

Longtime friends, cellist Yo-Yo Ma and pianist Kathryn Stott, create a unique classical music experience with their new recording, Songs from the Arc of Life. The album includes pieces they have frequently performed but never recorded, as well as a handful of discoveries. Songs from the Arc of Life begins and ends with two, much-beloved settings of the traditional 'Ave Maria,' opening with the soaring, radiant Bach/Gounod arrangement and closing with Schubert's more serene, contemplative version. In between is a remarkable spectrum of music that includes such enduring favorites as Brahms' 'Lullaby,' Dvorák's 'Songs My Mother Taught Me,' Elgar's 'Salut d'amour,' Gade's 'Jalousie' and Saint-Saëns' 'The Swan,' as well as richly evocative works by Debussy, Delius, Fauré, Gershwin, Grieg, Kriesler, Messaien, Schumann, Sibelius and Tchaikovsky. Ma and Stott also include a haunting piece by the contemporary composer Giovanni Sollima, a friend and colleague of both artists.

'I like to think of Songs from the Arc of Life as an invitation to our audience to remember and imagine what the soundtracks of their lives might be,' Yo-Yo Ma says. 'Kathy and I have talked for years about recording an album of music we absolutely love, pieces that express the context of a life, of our lives. Childhood, adolescence, young adulthood, middle age, old age: what do they sound like?'

'I love this title,' Stott says, 'the 'Arc of Life' – because it is one big arc. Once we arrived at the idea, we began to see a beautiful story, a journey through life's experiences. It has taken us a long time and much discussion, back and forth, to discover what that journey might be, because everyone's journey is slightly different.'

Yo-Yo Ma, cello
Kathryn Stott, piano