Yo-Yo Ma - Yo-Yo Ma Plays The Music of John Williams (2002)

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Yo-Yo Ma - Yo-Yo Ma Plays The Music of John Williams (2002)

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More close encounters with John Williams away from the silver screen. This time his focus is the cello – not just the cello‚ mind‚ but the cellist:Yo¬Yo Ma. To say thatMa greatly raises Williams’ game may sound like a rather backhanded compliment‚ but it’s hardly intended as such. The fact of the matter is that composers work on inspiration and when the inspiration comes in human form it generally takes on a more human dimension. The Cello ConcertoÊ– the biggest and most significant work of this collection – was written expressly for Ma. Andit shows.
There’s an energy in the writing which has everything to do with Ma’s many¬faceted personality. It’s as if Williams wanted to catch it all. It keeps him focused. It staves off self¬indulgence. It’s like Williams is suddenly composing for two. There’s far less here of the ‘musical grouting’ that stretched patience and concentration in the violin¬centred works of the last disc (DG‚ 12/01). That’s because there’s more variety – and direction. The four very distinctive movements even run together as if to pause would be to break the spell‚ to lose the impetus. Ma – as cellist‚ as person – is always pro¬active. Williams has caught that.
A fanfare of brass announces him at the start. And there he is‚ at the centre of things. A heroic presence. There’s a lot of Walton in this first movement – a sinewy imperative played out over a restless‚ ever shifting orchestral ostinato flecked with light¬catching instruments like the celeste. In the solo cadenza‚ the heroics turn in on themselves and suddenly we’re in another‚ more exotic place where clusters of piano and metallic percussion frame a kind of oriental blues – like Duke Ellington has gone further east than he intended. The scherzo is fleet-fingered escapism in the literal sense of the word‚ but the heart of the work is in its culmination: a final movement called simply ‘Song’. This is the side of both Ma and Williams that comes naturally – a singing lyricism. Williams even lends things a bardic tone with harp serving as a kind of lyre. It’s a song seemingly born in the singing of it‚ free‚ unfettered but never aimless. But that’s also the force of Ma’s personality for you. Everything is so personal.
ElegyÊwas deeply personal for Williams. It grew out of a violinist friend’s personal tragedy – the loss of her two young children – and was both his memorial to them and tribute to her. She plays in the orchestra for this recording – and very affecting it is‚ too. Expanded from a fragment of Williams’ score for Seven Days in Tibet (Sony‚ 1/98)‚ which prominently featured Ma‚ its brevity is also its strength. Williams is at his best writing for the moment – intensifying the moment. It’s what he does so well for film.
The Three Pieces for Solo Cello are very nearly cinematic. They are a musical testimony to the African¬American experience‚ highly ‘visual’ in character: from the crack of the work¬gang whip‚ graphically portrayed in the snap¬pizzicato of the first piece‚ ‘Rosewood’‚ to the ‘Pickin’’ of the second – a foot¬stompin’ banjo break in all but instrument. ‘The Long Road North’ is a cross between protest song and lullaby‚ a ‘spiritual’ living for the day that it might lay down its heavy load. Ma brings all three tableaux vividly‚ soul¬searchingly to life.
Least engaging for this listener was Heartwood‚ in which Williams’ well¬documented love of trees finds kinship with the rich impressionistic harmonies of a childhood passion – the music of the Claude Thornhill Orchestra‚ a 1930s dance band with symphonic aspirations (Thornhill was mentor of the jazz composer¬arranger Gil Evans). Williams’ score revels in a celluloid moodiness freely elaborated – which is another way of saying that despite Ma’s unifying presence‚ we’re in danger of once again not seeing the wood for the trees.

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Yo-Yo Ma - Yo-Yo Ma Plays The Music of John Williams (2002)

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