Yo-Yo Ma and Emanuel Ax on Beethoven’s Politics of the Cello

The New Yorker Radio Hour

WNYC Studios and The New Yorker

Politics, Arts, News, Wnyc, Books, David, Storytelling, Society & Culture, Yorker, New, Remnick

4.2 • 6.2K Ratings

🗓️ 8 June 2021

⏱️ 21 minutes

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Summary

Yo-Yo Ma and Emanuel Ax have both been playing Beethoven’s Cello Sonata No. 3 in A Major for over forty years. But it took a global pandemic for the two of them to fully understand it. “This is such open, hopeful music,” Ax said. But when Beethoven dedicated the original piece to a friend, he signed the manuscript, “amid tears and sorrow.” Beethoven, Ma and Ax reflected, finished the sonata during a tumultuous period in which Napoleon was at war with Austria and the composer was losing his hearing. “I thought this was a good piece for this moment,” Ma told The New Yorker’s music critic Alex Ross. “Because people are suffering, and we do think that music can give comfort.” The musicians spoke to Ross and performed from an empty concert hall as part of the New Yorker Festival. The segment originally aired November 13, 2020.

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is The New Yorker Radio Hour, a co-production of WNYC Studios and The New Yorker.
0:12.6	Welcome to The New Yorker Radio Hour. I'm David Remnick.
0:35.0	Thank you. Of all the many reasons to be happy about the decline in COVID cases here in the U.S., one is definitely the chance to hear great musicians playing live.
0:39.2	There's nothing like it. But for a long time, that was denied to us. Back in the fall, two of the very
0:47.7	best musicians sat together on a stage to play some of Beethoven's sonatas. They were there all alone,
0:53.7	the cellist Yo-Yo Ma and the pianist
0:56.0	Emmanuel Axe. This was for the New Yorker Festival, a virtual festival by necessity, and it happened
1:02.4	to be shortly before the 250th anniversary of Beethoven's birth. We'll hear an excerpt from their
1:08.2	amazing performance, and then they'll talk with New Yorker music critic Alex Ross, who was listening from home.
1:15.0	Here's Emanuel Ax on piano and Yo-Yo Ma on cello.
1:28.3	Music I'm I'm I'm I'm
1:30.3	I'm The
1:47.0	...you know,
1:48.0	...
1:49.0	... The
2:03.6	The So, Alex, what did you think?
2:20.3	Oh, I'm not here wearing my... So Alex, what did you think?
2:39.0	I'm not here wearing my critic hat.
2:40.5	Do you still like the piece?
2:42.8	More than ever.
2:44.6	Thank you so much.
2:46.4	That was magnificent to hear, and it's just splendid to see both of you from a distance.
	...

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