Yo-Yo Ma‘s new album with Emanuel Ax and Leonidas Kavakos, Beethoven for Three: Symphonies Nos. 2 & 5, is available now on Sony Classical. The album presents two of Beethoven’s iconic symphonies in intimate arrangements that maintain the power and immediacy of Beethoven’s orchestral works. Listen to the first movement from Symphony No. 5 here.
Here, Ax, Kavakos, and Ma seek out the most essential elements of Beethoven’s musical language, pairing his second symphony, arranged for trio by Beethoven’s pupil Ferdinand Ries, with his fifth — among the most recognizable pieces in western classical music — in a newly-commissioned arrangement by Colin Matthews.
The new release comes just days before the trio begins a tour of the United States, with performances scheduled in Washington, DC (March 7), New York, NY (March 8), Boston, MA (March 9), Chicago, IL (March 11), and Stony Brook, NY (March 12).
