There's More to the Cello than Yo-Yo Ma, Or, Introducing the Best 100 of Classical Music Series

Yo-Yo Ma is a brilliant cellist, wonderful ambassador for classical music, and has been characterized by Smithsonian Magazine as "the nicest guy in the classical music business." So why have I titled this post "There's More to the Cello than Yo-Yo Ma?"

Because great as he is, there are other wonderful cellists, and I'm a bit puzzled by people eager to attend the concerts of classical superstars like Ma and Itzhak Perlman but who have little curiosity about other cellists and violinists respectively. If you like Yo-Yo, you might enjoy other cellists as well.

Cello CDs purchased for the library in the last couple years include Zuill Bailey's recording of the Bach Cello Suites and a compilation called Best Cello 100. Even if you're not a classical music aficionado, you've probably heard the Prelude to Bach's Cello Suite No. 1, which has been used in an American Express commercial among many other commercials and movies. It's a stunning piece of music, and although I have a friend who insists that Janos Starker's recording of the cello suites is THE recording, I prefer Bailey's interpretations with his lighter touch, heightened dynamic contrasts and, at times, unusual phrasing. There's an improvisatory feeling to his performance of Cello Suite No. 1 that I prefer to Starker's. You can hear Zuill Bailey performing the 1st Cello Suite here, and Janos Starker's version of the first movement--the Prelude--here. Feel free to comment on which you prefer. Dissent is welcome!

We also own Pablo Casals' recording of the suite on the aforementioned Best Cello 100 CD. For someone looking to branch out from Yo-Yo Ma or for anyone who loves the cello, the Best Cello 100 is a great starting place. The compilation is a 6-CD set featuring 100 classics of the cello repertoire performed by acclaimed cellists including Starker, Mstislav Rostropovich, Jacqueline du Pré, and Truls Mørk.

Other titles in the Best 100 series that we own are:

Best 20th Century Classics 100
Best Baroque 100
Best Classics 100
Best Classics 100 Volume 2
Best Guitar 100
Best Romantic 100
Best Violin 100

Check them out today!

What's Elvis Costello Doing in the Ballet Section?

There's an Elvis Costello CD in the Ballet section (Il Sogno)
There's a Sting CD in the Lute section
(Songs from the Labyrinth)
There's a Yo-Yo Ma CD in the Jazz section (Hush)

What's the world coming to?!
Have the shelvers gone mad?!
Have the catalogers gone mad?!

Absolutely not! But more and more musicians, composers and songwriters are thinking--and writing and performing--outside of the box they're associated with. So you might not find every CD featuring your favorite artist in the same section.

For example, though you'll find most of Elvis Costello's CDs in the rock section, they aren't all there. To find one of them you'll have to stroll over to the Ballet section. That's right, the Ballet section! Although truth be told, longtime Costello fans shouldn't be surprised. The man has long been a chameleon. He has written songs with "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head" songwriter Burt Bacharach for the CD Painted from Memory (it's in the Popular section); he has collaborated with the Brodsky Quartet, and a couple of those songs can be heard on Best of Brodsky Quartet: Featuring Björk & Elvis Costello; and in 2000, when an Italian dance troupe contacted him about composing music for an adaption of A Midsummer Night's Dream, he took them up on the offer. The result is Il Sogno, and in the liner notes he talks about writing different types of music to accompany different kinds of characters. (Of supernatural beings, he wrote: "I thought it only appropriate that they should be swinging fairies.") While some classical compositions by rockers have been savaged by critics, The New York Times called it "a rhapsodic piece full of shifting moods, with moments of eerie delicacy and of comic pomp."

Others who have experimented with non-rock musical forms are Paul McCartney, who co-wrote Liverpool Oratorio with Carl Davis; and Billy Joel, who wrote Fantasies & Delusions: Music for Solo Piano.

If you're ever unsure of where to find a CD, please don't hesitate to ask at the Readers' Services desk on the 3rd floor. We're more than happy to help.

Have you ever checked out any of these CDs, or any other genre-busting CDs? (I've been warned against Liverpool Oratorio.) Do you enjoy Elton John's forays into musicals and movie soundtracks?