Yo-Yo Ma performs Bach in the Great Smoky Mountains

Cellist Yo-Yo Ma performs Bach’s Cello Suite no.1 against the backdrop of green trees and a babbling brook of the Great Smoky Mountains foothills in Tennessee.

The film coincides with the release of Nature At Play: Bach’s Cello Suite No. 1, a digital EP that exemplifies Ma’s ongoing exploration of Bach’s music and its contemporary relevance. It asks the listener to ’consider the ways that culture can connect us to the natural world and to each other in pursuit of a common future.’

Ma has pledged to donate his earnings from the release to EarthPercent, a charity that helps artists and the music industry support the most impactful organisations currently addressing the global climate emergency.

This comes ahead of the release of a three-disc LP edition of Ma’s first-ever recording of the Bach Cello Suites in 1983, from Sony Classical. Ma won the first of his 19 Grammy Awards for this recording, and went on to record the suites twice more.

J.S. Bach: 6 Suites for Unaccompanied Cello – The 1983 Sessions celebrates the 40th anniversary of the original recordings with three newly-pressed picture discs enclosed in a tri-fold jacket featuring exclusive, never-before-seen photos from the original recording session as well as an essay by its producer, Richard Einhorn. It will be released on 20 October 2023 and is available for preorder now.

Playing

In The Best of Technique you’ll discover the top playing tips of the world’s leading string players and teachers. It’s packed full of exercises for students, plus examples from the standard repertoire to show you how to integrate the technique into your playing.

Teaching

The Strad’s Masterclass series brings together the finest string players with some of the greatest string works ever written. Always one of our most popular sections, Masterclass has been an invaluable aid to aspiring soloists, chamber musicians and string teachers since the 1990s.

Calendars

American collector David L. Fulton amassed one of the 20th century’s finest collections of stringed instruments. This year’s calendar pays tribute to some of these priceless treasures, including Yehudi Menuhin’s celebrated ‘Lord Wilton’ Guarneri, the Carlo Bergonzi once played by Fritz Kreisler, and four instruments by Antonio Stradivari.