Sony Classical is pleased to present Emanuel Ax, Leonidas Kavakos, and Yo-Yo Ma's Beethoven for Three: Symphony No. 4 and Op. 97 “Archduke," which will be released March 15, 2024.

The fifteen tracks carefully selected here come from popular music pieces owned by Sony/BMG Music. Ten of these wonderful pieces are first Japanese SACD for this project, and these particular tracks by the world famous artists such The Alan Parsons Project, Boz Scaggs, Roger Waters, Karla Bonoff, and Sarah McLachlan are a world exclusive on SACD only in this series.

When Billy Childs was 11 years old, his older sister introduced him to the work of Rock & Roll Hall of Fame singer-songwriter Laura Nyro. Her blend of Broadway inspired melodies, jazz improvisation and socially conscious lyrics have stayed with him. Now Billy has returned to his early source of inspiration, conceiving and orchestrating the new album, "Map to the Treasure: Reimagining Laura Nyro", which features an incredible range of musicians who join him in interpreting her narratives.

Yo-Yo Ma might seem like an unlikely protagonist for the tango, but this intrepid musical explorer has taken his task seriously, collaborating with experienced tango musicians. Ma even participates in a posthumous collaboration with one 1987 Piazzolla recording. Furthermore, while he's obviously the headliner here, he doesn't dominate the arrangements nearly as much as he does the billing and photography of the disc. While the result isn't your essential Piazzolla album (that would have to include more of the composer's own playing), it's an atmospheric and convincing collection, perhaps a good introduction for those who don't know the music.

The idea here was to put two masters together - one classical cellist, one improvisational singer/sound-effects performer - and voilà! instant amazing, unique, hip - and, hopefully, hit - record. The intriguing setup was to see what would happen when each led the other through the unfamiliar territory of his own specialty. The success of this recording lies not so much in the music or even in the overall performances, but in the fascinating and fun opportunity to sit in on the musicians' good-natured, respectful give-and-take, to witness an uncommon form of artistic chemistry that allows each performer to expand his vision and even his technique. On one hand we get Bobby McFerrin's impressionistic, improvisatory jazz/pop; on the other we enjoy Yo-Yo Ma's highly refined, formalized musicianship.

From their sold-out concert at New York City's Avery Fisher Hall, legendary cellist Yo-Yo Ma, violinist Mark O'Connor and bassist Edgar Meyer, along with special guests James Taylor and Alison Krauss, perform works from the trio's acclaimed albums that span many musical genres.

Yo-Yo Ma Plays the Music of John Williams is a 2002 album of John Williams compositions performed by Yo-Yo Ma and the Recording Arts Orchestra of Los Angeles. The album was recorded on April 4–6, 2001 at the Sony Pictures Studios, Culver City, California.

Yo-Yo Ma’s multi-faceted career is testament to his continual search for new ways to communicate with audiences, and to his personal desire for artistic growth and renewal. Whether performing new or familiar works from the cello repertoire, coming together with colleagues for chamber music or exploring cultures and musical forms outside the Western classical tradition, Mr. Ma strives to find connections that stimulate the imagination. Very Japanese release. Traditional instruments along with Yo-Yo Ma, lovely to just let play in the background.

This disc is sort of Yo-Yo's virtuoso collection. The album is comprised largely of fairly mindless music, but at least Ma manages to make things interesting. Most of these works are played extremely well - his cello arrangement of the Dvorak-Kriesler "Songs my mother taught me" is stunning, and if the octaves (and a bit of other passagework) in the Paganani 24th caprice are out of tune, that track still serves as a tribute to his incredible technical skill.

Classic Yo-Yo is a greatest-hits collection for the famous Yo-Yo Ma, something he's fully entitled to after two decades of runaway success. It's "Classic Yo-Yo" in the sense that it presents well-loved and presumably durable selections from a variety of Yo-Yo Ma albums, not because it inclines toward Ma's straight-ahead classical recordings. In fact the division between classical and crossover pieces on the disc is about 50/50, and they tend to alternate. The transition from Bach to Astor Piazzolla works OK, but that from Appalachian Journey mastermind Edgar Meyer to Brahms might be a bit jarring. A greatest-hits album is a tough item for Ma because his recordings are so different from one another and involve such a variety of other musicians. As Ma himself says in an interview included in the liner material, "Collaboration is the best part of what I do, it's what I enjoy most about being a musician".

It was only a matter of time before the remarkable Yo-Yo Ma went along with the tide and dipped his talent into the so-called authentic instrument movement. On this recital, abetted by Ton Koopman–one of the most respected names in early-music practice–Ma plays Bach and Boccherini. The Bach are all transcriptions and very fine ones, indeed–the alto aria "Erbarme Dich" from the St. Matthew Passion; the equally famous "Air on a G String" from the Third Orchestral Suite; Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring; and six others, most less well-known. These are followed by two fascinating cello concertos by Boccherini, made all the more interesting by Koopman's cadenzas, which are pretty outrageous. Throughout, Ma's stunning virtuosity is matched by his taste and musicality. The Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra plays handsomely, and the recorded sound is warm and full. "Authentic" or not, this is mighty fine playing, and wait till you hear those cadenzas.

In his relentless quest to explore uncharted territories of cellodom, Yo-Yo Ma has delivered a recital for unaccompanied cello that–daringly–hasn’t any Bach. Instead, there are five works by as many composers, only two of which are truly successful as solo cello outings: Bright Sheng’s Seven Tunes Heard in China (a self-explanatory title if there ever was one) and Zoltan Kodaly’s justly famous Sonata for Solo Cello Op. 8.

Founded by Yo-Yo Ma during the Project’s second year, the Silk Road Ensemble has featured more than 60 members from 24 countries. Hailed as “one of the 21st century’s great ensembles” by the Vancouver Sun and described as “a kind of roving musical laboratory without walls” by the Boston Globe, the genre-defying Ensemble is a broad collective of musicians who honor the value of each member and the flexibility and creativity of the group. The newest chapter comes with the Sony Masterworks release of "A Playlist Without Borders" from the Silk Road Ensemble with Yo-Yo Ma. This is the groundbreaking group’s fifth recording and first since 2009’s Grammy-nominated Off the Map.

Recorded with the Roma Sinfonietta Orchestra, Yo-Yo Ma Plays Ennio Morricone sees the American cellist tackle some of the legendary Italian composer's most famous film scores. Produced by Morricone himself, the 2004 release features new arrangements of iconic soundtracks from The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, Cinema Paradiso, and Once Upon a Time in America, alongside lesser-known works from The Mission, A Pure Formality, and The Legend of 1900.

"The Goat Rodeo Sessions" is a groundbreaking project that brings together four string virtuosos: acclaimed cellist Yo-Yo Ma, fiddler Stuart Duncan, bassist Edgar Meyer and mandolin-player Chris Thile. Yo-Yo Ma, Edgar Meyer and Chris Thile have collaborated in the past, producing the gold-selling album Songs of Joy and Peace. Each artist is a prominent figure in his own musical realm. They have come together as a unified quartet for this classical-bluegrass masterpiece. The music, which includes two tracks with vocalist Aoife O’Donovan, feels both new and familiar it’s composed and improvised, uptown and down home, funky and pastoral and above all, uniquely American. The album topped the Billboard Bluegrass charts and won two GRAMMY Awards.