Yo-Yo Ma using Bach to change the world
Yo-Yo Ma would probably never put it quite so crudely, but he’s on a mission to make the world a better place. The superstar cellist has two main tools that he’s deploying in this quest — Bach’s six Suites for Unaccompanied Cello, and a radically expansive view of what culture means.
“I used to think that culture was cello music,” Ma said during a recent phone interview. “Then I thought, no, it’s museums and theater.
“But my new definition is that culture is anything we invent that increases our understanding of human nature and of nature. So it includes all the sciences, all of our languages, food, technology, navigation, even the creation of countries like the United States.
“So it isn’t a matter of whether culture has a seat at the table. Culture is the table.”
With that in mind, Ma has embarked on a two-year un-
Yo-Yo Ma: Oakland Block Party. Noon-3 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 29. Free. Old Oakland, Washington Street at Eighth and Ninth streets; Complete Bach Suites, 7 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 30. Starting at $50. Greek Theatre, 2001 Gayley Road, Berkeley. 510-6429988. calperformances.org
dertaking he calls the Bach Project. In visits to locations around the world, he seeks out what he calls the modern-day Bachs in each region — “people who are using their creativity and innovative ability to actually make things better” — and partnering with them to throw a spotlight on issues of particular local urgency.
Then he plays the Bach cello suites.
In the East Bay this weekend, Ma’s focus is on high school education. Together with the organization XQ, an advocate for the reinvention of high school education in America led by co-founder and CEO Russlynn Ali, he’s hosting a free block party on Saturday, Sept. 29, featuring appearances by Jax the Band, MC Hammer and others. He’ll take part in a panel discussion with Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf and give master classes for young local musicians.
On Sunday, Sept. 30, in a recital presented at the Greek Theatre by Cal Performances, he’ll perform the Bach suites in a single sitting — 2½ hours’ worth of music undertaken by a single performer with no intermission.
It’s a physical as well as an artistic challenge, and although Ma, who turns 63 in a couple of weeks, claims with a laugh that he’s becoming too physically decrepit to handle the task, the evidence — including reports of his performance last year at the Hollywood Bowl and an electrifying new recording on Sony Classical — suggests otherwise.
Also, this is familiar territory for Ma. The Bach cello suites are the central repertoire for any cellist, and he’s been working on them since he was a 4-year-old prodigy.
“It sounds like an obscene number — I played Bach for 58 years! That’s gross.
“But actually it’s not gross, because I find him more and more fascinating. Even 300 years after the suites were written, it’s unbelievably timely to play his music, especially the cello suites.”
The drama of these six collections of dance movements, Ma says, is the composer’s struggle to create full-bodied musical statements on an instrument that for the most part can only play one melodic line at a time.
“First, he tries to find out everything the cello can possibly do, and he does that in the first three suites. But then he actually asks himself the next question, which is, ‘How can I find out what the cello can not do, and then find a compositional means to make it do those things.’ He’s reaching for the impossible.”
That struggle, and the presence in the music of notes that are implied but not heard, is what makes these pieces so expressive and consolatory for listeners, Ma says.
“For decades, I’ve been getting letters and testimonials from people who say these suites have gotten them through cancer, radiation, chemotherapy, studying for exams, a divorce, a death, a loss. And I think that is related to the fact that Bach found the solution of doing the impossible for the cello by actually asking the ear of the listener to participate in filling in the voices that he can only partially cover.”
Speaking now in Bach’s voice, he continues.
“I understand what you’re going through, but I’m also very objective because I am a scientist-composer. So part of my job is to look at the universe and look at human nature objectively. Not only can I listen to your troubles, your pain, your sorrow, and not only can I also hold you at arm’s length and give you perspective, but I don’t come around telling you that I’m helping you and you have to rely on me. I don’t put myself at the center of your narrative.”
And that in turn brings him back to what he calls his “research project,” which includes visits like his current appearances.
“I’m trying to exteriorize something in the music that has been helpful to a lot of people, and helpful to me. I’m a cellist, I can’t change that.
“But what I can do it is use that music — which has been a companion to me in difficult times — as a metaphor to try to actually make things better.”