Dear melomaniac, just a few days ago a new release was out, featuring the renown cellist Yo-Yo Ma and the gifted pianist Kathryn Stott. In my opinion, there is no substitute for the melancholic touch of Yo-Yo Ma, this amazing and talented musician, who sided this time with his long-time collaborator, Kathryn Stott. Just seeing these two on the cover made me anxious to have a listen. So, let’s dive in and see what this new release is all about.
For Kathryn and Yo-Yo this is not their first collaboration, we need to look at Kathryn more as a stage partner for Yo-Yo instead of a punctual collaborator. Their collaboration spans over 40 years and this year, in 2024, it stops to a halt, since Kathryn Stott announced her retirement as a concert pianist. So, you see, dear melomaniac, this album is even more important because of this.
I think that due to the retirement of Kathryn, “Merci” has a deeper meaning to their long-time collaboration, it’s like they are thanking each other for the greatest years that have passed and the wonderful concerts and discs they made together.
For the disc at hand, both have chosen compositions from Gabriel Fauré, the preferred composer of Stott, but also from the amazing Camille Saint-Saëns, “a teacher in music” – as Stott calls the French composer.
The disc is highly emotional, with both Kathryn and Yo-Yo playing with their souls flying, giving us a deep and sensible disc full of the power of goodbye. We will not hear these two together again, but we will have their discs and memories about their amazing concerts, a duo that carried on for over 40 years. The power of the musical collaboration is big, and we have Yo-Yo Ma’s own words to support that: “we musicians stand on the shoulders of those who came before us, and that we can only hope that ours will sustain those who come after.”
So, give it a chance, give it a go, have a listen!
