Yo-Yo Ma Does Encores

Nelbine and I had a wonderful time at the Yo-Yo Ma/Emanuel Ax concert last night. Much to our surprise and delight, the whole evening was Beethovan cello and piano sonatas! Considering he only composed five of said such sonatas, we were lucky to have heard three of the five. My brain really needed a night like this, where it just had a cello and a piano on a bare stage to focus on.

Yo-Yo Ma has two cellos: a 1733 Montagnana cello and a 1712 Davidoff Stradivarius. When I read that in the program I couldn't stop thinking about this amazing fact. We were listening to a cello with an almost 300 year history. It made me think of the film The Red Violin, which delves into the complicated history of a Stradivarius violin. Mmm, that was a fabulous movie with some fabulous violin playing by Joshua Bell. Mmmm, Joshua Bell. Note: if you're going to link to his website, ignore the really bad hair in some of the head shots. What was he thinking?

Anyhoo, I digress. I fully expected to be enthralled with Yo-Yo Ma's performance. I was very pleasantly surprised to discover that the pianist was equally skilled. Emanuel Ax is a Polish boy who grew up in Winnipeg and went on to study at Juillard. Apparently he and Yo-Yo Ma go way back and you could tell this by how well they played together. I was curious about how much time they needed to practice as duets are no small feat; especially Beethoven duets. Then I read in the program that they've been performing together for over 20 years and have won grammy awards for the very same sonatas they were performing for us.

The best part of the performance was the encore. After the last sonata was finished, the two pulled out some sheet music and indicated one more song. The sheet music made the piece look like it was going to be lengthy but Yo-Yo Ma promised it wouldn't take long. All of this was done without a word being spoken, I felt like I was watching a Charlie Chaplin skit. Imagine in this day and age where there's never silence, a whole audience laughing heartily at the non-verbal comedy. This humour was laced throughout the evening and it was very refreshing!

Rock on Yo-Yo Ma! You cute, cute man.

ps - Tink has been sitting in his exer-saucer quite nicely the whole time I've been writing this. He's watching his Nature Baby video and squealing and laughing. What a good, sweet boy!