Collaboration Album On Double LP!
2021 Stereophile Magazine Record to Die For!
The former Goat Rodeo Sessions collaborators, Yo-Yo Ma, Chris Thile and EdgarMeyer, focus on their collective admiration of Bach for this recording of BachTrios on vinyl LP.
Nonesuch Records releases an album of Bach works recorded by cellist Yo-Yo Ma,mandolinist Chris Thile, and bassist Edgar Meyer, Bach Trios on 2LP vinyl. Thealbum comprises works by J.S. Bach originally written for keyboard instruments,plus one sonata for viola da gamba. In 2011, Ma, Thile, and Meyeralong withStuart Duncancollaborated on The Goat Rodeo Sessions, which won two GrammyAwards.
Yo-Yo Ma and Edgar Meyer’s first recording together was the 1996 albumAppalachia Waltz, which also featured fiddler Mark O’Connor; that album wasfollowed by Appalachian Journey, also with O’Connor, in 2000. Meyer and Thilealso began playing together nearly two decades ago, and first performed live asa duo in 2003. They have made two duo albums, 2008’s Edgar Meyer & Chris Thileand the Grammywinning 2014 record Bass & Mandolin.
Thile then joined Meyer on Ma’s 2008 holiday album, Songs of Joy and Peace,before the trio reunited, along with Stuart Duncan, for The Goat Rodeo Sessions,an album of original tunes drawing from the musicians’ backgrounds in bluegrass,classical, and American roots music. The Goat Rodeo Session debuted at numbertwenty-three on the Billboard 200 chart and number one on the classical andclassical crossover charts, as well as number one on the bluegrass chart, whereit stayed for eleven weeks. The album was also critically praised, with the LosAngeles Times calling it “haunting, invigorating, often breathtaking.”
As Ma told Billboard at that time: “How often do you work with people who aremaster virtuosos and also master improvisers and composers, who know at leasttwo musical traditions unbelievably well?” He continued, “It’s justextraordinary when you have people who can actually show on their instrumentswhat they’re thinking at any moment, without a delay. As soon as you think it,it gets transferred in your neuromusculature immediately into sound.”
The New York Times said of Yo-Yo Ma, who is considered one of today’s foremostinterpreters of Bach, “Other cellists hear Bach’s suites the same as Mr. Ma, butfew if any have the technical means to transfer their imaginings so preciselyinto sound.”
Throughout a lifetime of performing and composing, Edgar Meyer has turned thedouble bass into a modern virtuoso instrument that is equally at home inclassical music and in the American vernacular. In 1994, Meyer became the firstbassist to win the Avery Fisher Prize. He is also a recipient of the prestigiousMacArthur Foundation “Genius” Award and five Grammy Awards. Meyer has founddevoted audiences through a vast range of projects, from his own double bassconcertos that he continues to perform regularly to recital collaborations withEmanuel Ax and Amy Dorfman and performance and recording projects with artistsincluding Joshua Bell, Yo-Yo Ma, Béla Fleck, Zakir Hussain, Mark O’Connor, SamBush, Jerry Douglas, Mike Marshall, and many others. The New Yorker calls him”the most remarkable virtuoso in the relatively unchronicled history of hisinstrument.”
MacArthur Fellow Chris Thile is the founding member of Punch Brothers, which aBoston Globe reviewer recently called “the tightest, most impressive live band Ihave ever seen.” The group’s four Nonesuch albums are Punch, Antifogmatic, Who’sFeeling Young Now?, and The Phosphorescent Blues. Thile’s other Nonesuchreleases include a duet album of traditional bluegrass songs with guitaristMichael Daves, Sleep with One Eye Open, and a prominent role in the T BoneBurnettproduced soundtrack to the Coen brothers’ film Inside Llewyn Davis. As asoloist, he has released five albumsmost recently the highly praised Bach:Sonatas and Partitas, Vol. 1and performed extensively as a duo with felloweminent mandolinist Mike Marshall. He spent 15 years as a member of the GrammyAwardwinning, multi-platinum selling band Nickel Creek, which reunited in 2014for its highest-charting album to date, A Dotted Line (Nonesuch), and anextensive tour. Thile has also collaborated with a pantheon of bluegrassinnovators including Béla Fleck, Dolly Parton, Jerry Douglas, and Sam Bush.
Features:
Vinyl LP
Double LP
Limited time MP3 download
Musicians:
Yo-Yo Ma, cello
Chris Thile, mandolin
Edgar Meyer, bass
Selections:
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)
Side A:
1. Trio Sonata No. 6 in G Major, BWV 530
I. Vivace
II. Lento
III. Allegro
2. Prelude No. 19 in A Major from The Well-Tempered Clavier Book I, BWV 864
3. Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme, BWV 645
Side B:
1. Fugue No. 20 in A Minor from The Well-Tempered Clavier Book II, BWV 889
2. Ich ruf zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ, BWV 639
3. Prelude and Fugue No. 18 in E minor, BWV 548
Side C:
1. Passepied from Keyboard Partita No. 5 in G Major, BWV 829
2. Kommst du nun, Jesu, vom Himmel herunter, BWV 650
3. Contrapunctus XIII from The Art of the Fugue, BWV 1080
4. Erbarm dich mein, o Herre Gott, BWV 721
Side D:
1. Sonata for Viola da Gamba No. 3 in G Minor, BWV 1029
I. Vivace
II. Adagio
III. Allegro
