Kristina Reiko Cooper, cellist, along with Or Matias (piano) and Satoshi Takeishi (percussion) takes us on a “world tour” of pieces from different national and ethnic sources that suit her sense of melody and love songs. Cooper states, “every culture has its own ubiquitous collection of love songs.”
Amapola (Spain) refers to a little poppy that seems to smile in the sunshine. (3:49)
Les Chemins de l’amour (“The paths of love,” [France]) gives us a waltz or “torch song” for lost love. (2:58)
Manha de Carnaval (“The Morning of Carnival” [Brazil]) is a Bossa Nova jazz song that captures the erotic heat and passion of South America’s carnival season. Some will recall this melody from the classic movie Black Orpheus. (4:26)
You Deserve a Prince (USA), a ballad from a new Glen Roven Broadway musical, occurs when a young boy considers the man his mother is about to marry “the wrong man.” The cello arrangement turns it into a classical aria. (3:44)
I Could Have Danced All Night (USA) from the musical My Fair Lady (arr. Prutsman) finds Eliza Doolittle musing on her night at the ball in waltz and tango terms. Prutsman quotes from Prokofiev’s 3rd Concerto. (3:26)
Raga (India), by David Shanton, means to be an Indian love-song that draws upon micro-tonality, jazz, and traditional Indian religious music in its percussive, modal form. (9:05)
Apres un Reve (France), a song by Gabriel Faure, compares love to a dream-state. The bliss makes the narrator wish to return to the ecstatic light, away from harsh reality. (3:11)
Yoimachigusa (“Evening Primrose,” [Japan]). The expectant lover unfolds her sad heart like an evening flower, even though her love is unrequited, and her petals will shrivel and scatter. (4:42)
Vu Iz Dos Gesele (Yiddish), an arrangement of the traditional song, “Where is the little street?” refers to lost personal romantic history, destroyed by the Holocaust. The six bell chimes each stand for one million lives lost. The cello solo grows into a more symphonic sound - like Beethoven and Brahms, and in C Minor - to reflect the size and tragedy of the loss. The middle section does gather some dancing optimism. (7:53)
Vocalise (Russia), a song without words, by Uri Brenner, invokes a “City of Mystics” inhabited by children. Inspired by Saint-Exupery’s The Little Prince, Brenner quotes the line, “All grown-ups were once children, but only la few of them remember.” (7:08)
My Beloved (Israel) derives from a Israeli popular song by Sasha Argov. The captivating cello melody has a minimalist piano accompaniment. The piece’s form is strophic - in choruses - that bring out the melody and the romantic harmonies. (5:14)
Besame Mucho (“Kiss me much and often,” [Mexico]), a song by Consuelo Velazquez, by a fifteen-year-old girl, has become Mexico’s best-known song. (3:39)
Emmanuel (France), by Michel Colombier, is an elegy written in memory of the composer’s son, who died at the tender age of 5. (2:58)
Silent Song (Georgia), by Josef Bardanashvili, a love song commissioned for this album, expresses lyricism and passion, both natural to Ms. Cooper’s way of playing the cello. (3:41)