Nonesuch have announced the release in April of a set of Bach trio sonatas.
The players are:
Chris Thile, a recent chart-topper.
Yo Yo Ma, a perennial favourite.
And Edgar Meyer, the go-to bassist.
Should be a smash. But in today’s market, who knows?
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Ma and Meyer are fine artists, but one is left to question their judgement on this project. Does the world really need a hipster version of Bach trios? The informed community will rightly avoid purchasing this, but it will probably make a killing with the yoga pants wearing, latte drinking, trophy wife chattering class over at Starbucks. This is more proof that our civilization is doomed.
“Hipster version”? What does that mean, exactly? Have you actually heard the recording? If not, please sample first and then make an informed opinion.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=770rJqDwRXo
I know for sure I wouldn’t buy this product if they waterboarded me. Yo-Yo Ma ceased to exist for me the minute he went cross-over/multi-cultural/new-agey/silky-road years ago. A pity because his early recordings, especially the Bach suites, are so special and profound. I also prize his Brahms double concerto with Stern, Abbado and the Chicago.
I wonder if the 2 posters above have actually heard Chris Thile play Bach. I have presented him solo and in a duo with Edgar. Both nights were mesmerizing, beautiful, and Bach was played with a relevancy that is so often missing these days. You don’t have to buy the CD but let’s wait until we hear it before passing snarky judgements.
Agree. He’s a terrific musician.
I refuse, and I mean REFUSE, to hear Bach’s compositions performed on a puny mandolin. Call me narrow-minded or snobbish or what have you. I can live with that.
P.S.: I also refuse to hear Bach on the harpsichord
“Call me narrow-minded …”
Not necessary.
I might respect your opinion if you had at least heard the recording before passing judgement. With that said, I REFUSE to give any credence to your opinion. I can live with whatever names you might wish to call me.
So you refuse to listen to Bach’s music played on an instrument he played himself? Do you also refuse to listen to the Brahms violin concerto played on a violin?
Did Sony drop Yo-Yo Ma? Or was this done with their permission, like his DG recording of the Beethoven Triple Concerto with Karajan?
I am not much interested in Bach, all the same I listened to their rendition with a certain portion of pleasure … I wish they would play that somewhere at university ball for a special occasion , why not …
I’m with my friend Mervon here. The music-making on the video above is terrific and the knee-jerk criticisms above are more than silly. Come on, guys, open your ears, Bach is universal and can be legitimately performed in a myriad of styles and these are three sincere artists of great talent who clearly believe in what they are doing.
Oh excellent. Following your logic, I then eagerly await Thile’s next recording of the five Beethoven concerti for instrument-of-choice and might as well throw in as filter the other, sole concerto for mandolin he composed that they keep transcribing for so-called violin. It’s the age of alternative facts after all.
Who’s talking about Beethoven? Bach’s music is uniquely transcribable as has been shown many times by everyone from the Swingle Singers to Jacques
Lussier and numerous classical instrumentalists…nothing new here and certainly nothing shocking!