| Yo-Yo Ma | Cello |
| Kathryn Stott | Piano |
Cellist Yo-Yo Ma reunites with long-time duo partner Kathryn Stott in two masterly sonatas and sublimely unruffled Arvo Pärt.
The surging passions of César Franck’s repurposed sonata perfectly complement the lyricism, humour, and prescient unrest that infiltrate the Shostakovich that precedes it. Together with Arvo Pärt’s mesmerising distillation of stillness, the Fauré centenary is affectionately acknowledged twice-over; Dvořák dips into nostalgic reverie; and remembering childhood, too, is Sérgio Assad, whose evocative Menino was originally composed for Yo-Yo Ma and guitar duo.
Collaborators for over three decades, Yo-Yo Ma and Kathryn Stott have built up a rapport that never fails to captivate. Of their musical partnership The Mercury News observes: ‘like champion dancers who anticipate each other’s moves… their playing is elegant and from the heart’.