Songs of comfort and hope

ALL ABOUT THE ARTS

Songs of comfort and hope is the title of a new CD being released by Sony. The album offers a welcome musical balm for our spirits in these troubled times. The CD includes beloved familiar songs arranged for cellist Yo Yo Ma and pianist Kathryn Stott.

Ranging from traditional, folk, and American show tunes to world music and classical songs by Bloch, Grieg and Rachmaninoff, the list of gems includes Amazing Grace…Shenandoah, Ol’ Man River… Goin’ Home…Jewish Song…Zdes’ khorosho…Moscow Nights…Over the Rainbow…Rain Falling from the Roof…Song Without Words…Waltzing Matilda…Scarborough Fair…Solveig’s Song…Les Chemins de l’Amour…Marietta’s Lied…Thula Baba…The Last Rose of Summer…Danny Boy…Gracias a la Vida…We’ll Meet Again.

As we have come to expect from the duo of YoYoMa and Kathryn Stott, the playing is honestly straightforward and totally devoid of any sentimentalizing, with no condescension towards the humble origins of Scarborough Fair or Danny Boy and with the same respect and musicality given in equal amounts to Jerome Kern and to Felix Mendelssohn.

We were hard put to label this album. It is not strictly classical in its selections, even though the playing is idiomatically that of two concert artists to whom the label crossover would be offensive. Throughout his wide ranging explorations of everything from Bach to Tango, Yo Yo Ma has proven time and again that music is either good or bad regardless of its origins, and all together the music in this gem of a CD is good music.

Rafael de Acha  www.RafaelMusicNotes.com     

Published by ALL ABOUT THE ARTS

Rafael de Acha has enjoyed a distinguished career in the arts as a performer, stage director, producer, and educator. He was born and grew up in Cuba. At the age of 17 he moved to the United States to study Drama at the University of Minnesota, and later Languages at L.A. City College, Music at the Juilliard School of Music, at the University of Cincinnati’s College Conservatory of Music, and at the New England Conservatory of Music, from which he received the Master's degree. He has taught courses on the History of Music at the University of Miami’s Frost School of Music and at Florida International University, and contributed writings and reviews to Seen and Heard International (www.seenandheard-international.com ) and to this blog. He co-founded the award-winning New Theatre in Coral Gables, Florida, where he produced and staged twenty seasons of classical and contemporary theater, including fifty world premieres of plays that went on to have international and national productions on and off Broadway, including Ana in the Tropics by Nilo Cruz (Pulitzer Prize for Drama 2002 and Tony Nomination 2003.) In 2006 he was presented with a citation from The Dade County Cultural Affairs Council for “trailblazing contributions to the arts in South Florida.”