Weekly Music Recommendation

Photograph: Arches National Park – Image captured just as the sun was rising.

My music selection this week is Yo-Yo Ma playing Ennio Morricone.  This CD includes some of the most beautiful and haunting compositions ever collected on one platter.  As you listen to this music you will be drawn back to films as Ennio Morricone composed many of these pieces for movies.  Here is one of many positive reviews found on Amazon.

“I had the privilege of seeing Yo Yo Ma in concert here in the U.S. when he was a relative newcomer in the classical world.  I was a little girl and I sat in that symphony hall and cried as I watched a man and his instrument become one.

I have not had that sort of emotional response to anything Ma has done since that time, no matter how wonderful and perfect his playing is. That being said, this album made me cry like a baby. In the store. Yes, in public. The level of emotional perfection and purity in Ma’s intonality – the gentle caress of each note is simply unmatched. And as other reviewers have already stated, the entire album is consistent.

Yo Yo Ma aside for a moment, I was already fan of some of the pieces on this album before hearing Ma’s interpretation. Being familiar with them, I really wondered about their adaptability to cello performance. What surprised me is that not only does every piece chosen work – but they outdo their original and marvelous construction. Yo Yo Ma has raised the level of Morricone’s compositions to heights that a Morricone fan would not have ever believed possible. As a result, you will appreciate both of these artists more for what each has done for the other.

If I could only own one album by Yo Yo Ma, this, folks, would be it.”