Yo-Yo Ma

Speaker 30:01

BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts.

Presenter0:04

Hello, I'm Lauren Laverne and this is the Desert Island Discs podcast. Every week I ask my guests to choose the eight tracks, book and luxury they'd want to take with them if they were cast away to a desert island. For rights reasons, the music is shorter than the original broadcast. I hope you enjoy listening.

Presenter0:42

My castaway this week is the cellist Yo-Yo Ma. He is America's favorite classical musician. Born in Paris to Chinese parents, he arrived in New York as a child prodigy and has represented the USA on the world stage ever since. When moments of collective significance arise, he is entrusted to articulate them. He's performed for eight presidents and was the first musician to play on the World Trade Center site one year after the 2001 attacks.

Presenter1:09

His recordings of Bach, Beethoven and Brahms have won numerous Grammy Awards, and he believes that music can precipitate change and forge new connections. His many globetrotting collaborations have taken in soundtracks with Ang Lee and Enno Moricone, along with adventures in television with the Sesame Street cast and The Simpsons. On his last tour, he played for Italian health workers at the US-Mexican border and in a Beirut techno club. Recently, he's been asking a new question, what can music do for people in a pandemic? His online concert series, Songs of Comfort, clocked up over 17 million views. Perhaps unsurprisingly, when he was called up to receive his vaccination, he took his cello along too, treating everyone waiting in line to an impromptu performance. He says, It's hard to define music because it's ephemeral, but its effect is always about something bigger than yourself. Yo-Yo Ma, welcome to Desert Island Discs.

Yo-Yo Ma2:06

Thank you so much, Lloyd, it's such a pleasure to be with you.

Presenter2:08

Listeners can actually check out your performance at the local vaccine center online. It was filmed while you were there. I mean, there you were with your cello. Obviously, you were wearing your face mask too. So I wonder how quickly people realized it was you?

Yo-Yo Ma2:13

Goodbye.

Yo-Yo Ma2:22

Some people did and some people didn't. Someone asked me on my way out, do you play with an orchestra? I said

Yo-Yo Ma2:28

The Boston Symphony, I said, yes, sometimes I do. And maybe the best visual that I had was that there was an older gentleman who actually started hearing music and then he pulled up a chair as close as he could within the social distancing and just sat there and listened the whole time.

Speaker 22:44

Yeah.

Yo-Yo Ma2:49

As if this was something you really needed. And for me, that's the essence of doing music at all: you just go where the need is. It's a form of.

Speaker 22:52

Yeah.

Yo-Yo Ma2:59

Of fuel, of food, maybe not in the material physical sense, but certainly in the ephemeral and spiritual sense.

Presenter3:07

Absolutely. It's such a wonderful and a slightly incongruous moment in that local hall with such beautiful music. And we must get on to your first piece now to take with you to the desert island. What is it and why have you chosen it today?

Yo-Yo Ma3:22

Our dearly departed Leonard Cohen, there's something extraordinary about his voice. He sounds like.

Yo-Yo Ma3:30

the monk that he kind of wanted to be, but in musical form as a performer. And in some ways he's a reluctant performer, did not take easily to the stage. And yet what he's saying about was the troubles

Yo-Yo Ma3:47

and the sticky wickets that all of us go through in life, and the fact that he's able to put them out on the table and still sing the song.

Yo-Yo Ma3:59

Alleluia is something that I think we all can

Yo-Yo Ma4:03

Relate to and feel that, yeah, he's one of us, we get it.

Yo-Yo Ma4:09

He gets it. He gets us.

Speaker 24:11

Baffled King composing, Hallelujah.

Speaker 24:37

Yeah.

Presenter4:40

Leonard Cohen and hallelujah, you've performed that track, Yo-Yoma, on the subway in Montreal, I believe.

Yo-Yo Ma4:45

I did, and it was so much fun.

Presenter4:48

So you are of course known for taking your music all around the world to some really incredible locations and you're actually in the middle of a global tour performing Bach's cello suites when the pandemic happened. And I know that you've been playing that collection of music throughout your life. Does sixty five year old yo-yo approach them differently from twenty-five year old yo-yo?

Yo-Yo Ma5:08

Let's put it this way: I'm still trying to get it right.

Yo-Yo Ma5:12

It depends what you think right is, right? So, in a humorous way, I'm saying that.

Presenter5:15

Right.

Yo-Yo Ma5:18

But in a deeper sense, with every stage in life, there are certain truths that we encounter. And with each time I've explored it, it's been through a different lens. The present lens is about actually saying simply, this is what I do.

Yo-Yo Ma5:39

This is very meaningful to me.

Yo-Yo Ma5:41

And if I'm a visitor to your community, that's what I can offer.

Yo-Yo Ma5:46

Let's talk. I think in Bach's music, and especially for me in the cello suites, but in general, I think there is a balance between absolute compassion

Yo-Yo Ma5:58

Four.

Yo-Yo Ma5:59

What humans feel, what you feel.

Yo-Yo Ma6:03

Okay.

Yo-Yo Ma6:04

Understands. That balanced with the fact that he is also objective.

Yo-Yo Ma6:12

And in listening to his music, one feels that balance. One feels that you're both understood, but that also you're part of something bigger that can look at what

Yo-Yo Ma6:24

You are with a certain kind of perspective and clarity.

Yo-Yo Ma6:29

That approach is very healing. We need both. And to have that in one person in musical form is kind of a special treat.

Presenter6:39

It's time for your second disk, Yo Yo. What have you chosen?

Yo-Yo Ma6:42

It's called Erbarmendig. The first time I heard it, I just...

Yo-Yo Ma6:47

Wept.

Yo-Yo Ma6:48

Do you ever experience that you see something that's so beautiful, so glorious, and it's not because of sadness or tragedy, but something that is just so extraordinary, you're brought to tears. Could be a landscape, it could be something, and that's what it did to me. And I think everything I said about sort of Bach understanding how you feel for me, this is like the moment where you hear this music, and it's like here he is completely enveloping and receptive and cuddling and cradling all of the human condition.

Yo-Yo Ma7:24

All of who we are, and it's just devastating.

Yo-Yo Ma7:27

I'm brought to tears every time I hear it.

Presenter8:30

Er Barmadic from Bach's Saint Matthew Passion performed by Kai Vessel with the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra conducted by Tone Copman.

Presenter8:38

So Yo Yo Ma, your parents were both musicians. Born in China, they set up home in France before eventually settling in the States. How did they come to leave China?

Yo-Yo Ma8:49

My father, who was born in 1911, was 25.

Yo-Yo Ma8:55

When he left China, he had graduated from university. He had had teachers who had studied in France in art and in music.

Yo-Yo Ma9:05

and contrary to what his parents wanted him to do,

Yo-Yo Ma9:09

And I think the compromise that they made was that if he went, he had to go get a further degree. So he ended up getting PhD in musicology at the Silbon.

Speaker 29:18

Yeah.

Yo-Yo Ma9:19

And ended up staying in France for twenty seven years.

Yo-Yo Ma9:23

So, this is 1936. And so, think about this. My father, therefore.

Yo-Yo Ma9:29

Was in China during the Japanese invasion of China, so you know, the beginnings of World War II, and then he was in Paris during the Nazi invasion of Paris. So he actually, you know, experienced World War II from two different parts of the world. My mother, who was 12 years younger,

Speaker 29:38

Uh

Yo-Yo Ma9:48

She had a beautiful voice, she was talented, musically talented.

Yo-Yo Ma9:53

And she went in nineteen forty-nine, there was

Yo-Yo Ma9:57

The Japanese invasion, then there was the Civil War. And so she experienced that. And at the last moment in 1949, she left.

Speaker 210:01

Yeah.

Yo-Yo Ma10:06

To go to Paris to pursue her vocal studies. And of course, they got married.

Yo-Yo Ma10:13

My sister came along and I came along and that's and then when we the reason we moved to the States, you know, it's a funny immigrant story because my parents, who had no money at all, managed to scrounge up the funds

Yo-Yo Ma10:28

We did a across the country train trip.

Yo-Yo Ma10:31

And visited relatives in different places. My sister, who is a very talented violinist, played with the Denver Symphony Orchestra. And the two of us gave one little concert in New York just before we left. And a lady who had founded a school was looking for a music teacher, had heard about this Dr. Ma, who was a good pedagogue, and came to the concert, invited him to come teach at this school. And had that meeting not happened, I would have grown up in Paris.

Presenter11:04

Your father, you described him as a a born pedagogue, I think, a born teacher. And of course he was your first music teacher too. What was his teaching style?

Yo-Yo Ma11:09

Yeah.

Yo-Yo Ma11:14

He was not the cuddly type. He was very analytical. He had really great methodology. So the way that he taught me allowed me.

Yo-Yo Ma11:24

Become extremely efficient.

Yo-Yo Ma11:27

In practicing.

Yo-Yo Ma11:29

You know, he was very severe. I had two tiger parents. Immigrant energy. You know, it's like, you got to succeed. You got to do it. You got to do it. I always thought.

Speaker 211:34

Yeah.

Yo-Yo Ma11:38

the room where I went to practice and do calligraphy and learn French and do ear training, that room was so full of work. I didn't attribute exception to my father, but it was it was the place, you know, it was the place of work. And but we were home schooled until I came to the States in second grade.

Speaker 211:50

Uh

Presenter11:50

No.

Presenter11:56

As you mentioned, Yo-Yo, your older sister is also very musical. She plays the piano and violin, and there's a gorgeous video clip of you both performing for President Kennedy. You were just seven years old at the time and had recently moved from Paris to the States. What do you remember about that performance?

Yo-Yo Ma12:14

I knew that we were doing something kind of big and there were important people there. But what you don't see in the clip, but I have a photo of, was that there was an MC that evening, and he was Leonard Bernstein, who was lovely. He didn't conduct, but and there was a conductor, and the conductor was Danny Kaye.

Yo-Yo Ma12:35

And Danny Kaye, the active comedian, the enormously talented person, conducted and did such funny things with the orchestra, made them sit down, made them sing, made the audience sing, made all these things that I was mesmerized by him. I didn't leave the event saying, I want to be president.

Yo-Yo Ma12:56

I left the evening thinking, I want to be Danny Kaye.

Presenter13:00

Would you tell us about your next disc?

Yo-Yo Ma13:03

I was introduced.

Yo-Yo Ma13:05

to The Brahms' first concerto with Leon Fleischer.

Yo-Yo Ma13:09

And the Cleveland Orchestra and George L conducting For Me the Music of Brahms.

Yo-Yo Ma13:15

implies a humanistic struggle.

Yo-Yo Ma13:19

It's the second theme.

Yo-Yo Ma13:21

That just caught me because

Yo-Yo Ma13:24

Pianist has two hands and they're different voices, and to hear.

Yo-Yo Ma13:28

How

Yo-Yo Ma13:29

With his two hands, he's able to actually create a struggle, a rhythmic struggle, tugging against, you know, it, in rock music or in getting the groove, which side of the groove are you on? You know, and this is sort of like a larger version of groove, but it's like the swaying of a boat, but that you're being tugged on either end by currents and you're still trying to go forward. It's amazing.

Presenter14:57

Part of the first movement of Brahms Piano Concerto No. 1 in D minor performed by Leon Fleischer and the Cleveland Orchestra conducted by George Sell.

Presenter15:07

Yo, your ma, you met and performed for the famed cellist Pablo Casals as a young boy. What kind of impression did he make on you?

Yo-Yo Ma15:15

By that time he was in his eighties. I played for him. I asked him to sign my autograph book and he wrote something nice on it.

Yo-Yo Ma15:26

And he said to my parents.

Yo-Yo Ma15:27

Don't forget to go and play baseball.

Yo-Yo Ma15:30

Which is really a beautiful thing to say. And I think what he meant by that is: make sure you don't spend all your time doing music. And soon after that, I read someplace and I heard him say it too, that he thought of himself as a human being first, as a musician second, and as a cellist third. And coming from Tiger Parents, that was literally music to my ears because it says, aha, you see, it's not all about cello playing. And what I admired about him was that he actually lived his values.

Presenter15:58

You see?

Presenter16:06

And what does living your values mean to you?

Yo-Yo Ma16:09

When you have

Yo-Yo Ma16:10

Giants like that, or there's so many giants. What can I do to help?

Yo-Yo Ma16:15

What are we going through now? What are the fractures in the world? And most of us, myself included, we feel like, well, it's just me. I can't do anything. But actually,

Yo-Yo Ma16:26

I think just starting with the first steps, getting into action to say, hey, I'm going to just put on videos, I'm going to zoom into hospital rooms and play for patients where you can't humans, visitors, family can't visit. They'll have some music. That's energy.

Yo-Yo Ma16:45

Or you join things, you help out, you look for where the need is.

Presenter16:50

Yo-Yo, it's time for your fourth disc today.

Yo-Yo Ma16:53

One cannot be a cellist and not know

Yo-Yo Ma16:57

Appreciate and love Jackie's contribution to the cello world.

Presenter17:02

That's Jacqueline Dupre. Yeah.

Yo-Yo Ma17:03

I first heard her Elgar that she recorded when she was nineteen years old.

Yo-Yo Ma17:08

with Sir John Barbaroli and she was like

Yo-Yo Ma17:13

A massive shooting star that just entered into our planet space because it was an explosive talent.

Yo-Yo Ma17:22

The energy that you could hear from the first movement of the Elgar, Jackie just elevated it and shot it into.

Yo-Yo Ma17:31

The consciousness of a much larger general public.

Presenter18:35

Part of the first movement of Elgard's cello concerto performed by Jacqueline Dupre with the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Sir John Barbirolli.

Presenter18:43

You went to New York's Juilliard Music School before going on to study at Harvard, Yo Yo Ma. What kind of college student were you, I wonder?

Yo-Yo Ma18:53

The idea of dorm life, living with fellow students and was just so appealing. That was my escape from home.

Speaker 219:02

Mm-hmm.

Yo-Yo Ma19:03

I thought, I gotta do this. I really gotta do this. Was I a good student? Not particularly. What I loved was the chance to explore anything that was in any way interested in.

Presenter19:19

When you were twenty five, Yoyo, you had to have surgery for scoliosis, and that put you in a cast for six months, which must have been such a scary time. How worried were you about how it was all going to work out?

Yo-Yo Ma19:32

You think that you're immortal at a certain time in your life?

Presenter19:34

Mm-hmm.

Yo-Yo Ma19:36

And I knew this was this was a major operation. And I was kind of at peace with whatever was going to happen because I was with my wife. She was obviously worried, but that wasn't going to affect her relationship with me, regardless of how the operation turned out.

Yo-Yo Ma19:53

And I thought that I had experienced a lot in music by that time. And so if I never played again, that's okay.

Yo-Yo Ma20:03

And that's where I really value being able to have an education, not because I went to an elitist institution or because I was hanging with muckety-muck people, whatever. The thing that was interesting is that it actually gave me, maybe totally unfounded, a certain kind of confidence to say, look, you know, yeah, I spent these number of years doing this. And if I never did it again, I'll live with it. I'll find something else to do.

Yo-Yo Ma20:30

But it was a very meaningful moment because then

Yo-Yo Ma20:32

The extra years that came.

Yo-Yo Ma20:34

From being able to play, that was a gift.

Presenter20:37

It's time for your fifth disk, Yo Yo Ma. Why have you chosen this? Why are you taking it to the island with you?

Yo-Yo Ma20:43

I'm a great fan of Oscar Peterson, and I actually only heard him.

Yo-Yo Ma20:49

Once live and it was an extraordinary experience. It was at an Edinburgh Festival and I was playing in the little hall and he was performing at Usher Hall that evening, which was the big hall. And I got a ticket. I sat out, you know, up in the balcony. And for like two and a half hours, I was treated to the most magnificent performance. I think that was a performance where he just became bigger and bigger. I thought at an hour and 45 minutes, I thought he's getting to the end. No, and then he came back and more two hours in. He says, okay, that's that. Yeah, no, this is the end. This is great. This is fabulous. And no, he came back with more. It was so totally amazing.

Speaker 221:29

No, he came back with

Presenter22:34

The Oscar Peterson trio playing Tin Tin Dale.

Presenter22:37

Yo Yo Ma, your interest in musical connections inspired you to set up the Silk Road Ensemble. That was back in 1998. It's a collaboration with musicians from North America, Asia and Europe, and I believe it began with a question, which was what happens when strangers meet? What were you hoping for?

Yo-Yo Ma22:55

Hopefully not disaster.

Yo-Yo Ma22:57

This is an interesting question because I think even during the Roman period, the Romans knew that there was something far out there as in another culture, and they knew of each other's existence.

Yo-Yo Ma23:11

There weren't the border patrols that said, okay, this is where it stops. It's your scale is here, my scale is here.

Presenter23:17

Ella is here.

Yo-Yo Ma23:20

Don't you cross that line?

Presenter23:21

Forget everything that you've just heard in that country when you've got to this.

Yo-Yo Ma23:22

I'm just

Yo-Yo Ma23:23

Exactly. And today we have a choice.

Yo-Yo Ma23:29

We can examine things. And I think I chose to exercise that ability to be able to go to the new countries that came after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. And music actually is a good that travels lightly. If we think that culture's unique ability to turn the other into us is true, then.

Yo-Yo Ma23:54

Music actually possesses that ability because if you like a tune, it's yours. You like that secret chord? It's yours. Just suddenly, a huge world opened up that allowed us to actually show the world on one stage when the Silk Road performed.

Presenter24:15

It's time for your sixth disc, Yo-Yo.

Yo-Yo Ma24:17

What have you chosen?

Presenter24:18

Yeah.

Yo-Yo Ma24:19

Named Janet Baker.

Yo-Yo Ma24:21

has one of the

Yo-Yo Ma24:23

Most

Yo-Yo Ma24:24

Wonderful, glorious.

Yo-Yo Ma24:27

Voices. And the song Morgan is about. I'll read you a little bit of the poem. It's so beautiful. It says, Tomorrow again will shine the sun.

Yo-Yo Ma24:38

And on my sunlit path of earth Unite us again as it has done, And give our bliss another birth.

Yo-Yo Ma24:46

The spacious beach

Yo-Yo Ma24:48

Under wave blue skies.

Yo-Yo Ma24:50

We'll reach by descending soft and slow.

Yo-Yo Ma24:53

And mutely.

Yo-Yo Ma24:54

Gaze in each other's eyes.

Yo-Yo Ma24:56

As over us rapture's great hush will flow.

Yo-Yo Ma25:01

And you hear this music and with those words

Yo-Yo Ma25:05

It's a moment.

Yo-Yo Ma25:07

Boy, has she been a great citizen, she's a real hero.

Speaker 225:17

Uh

Speaker 225:24

I

Speaker 225:33

Uh

Speaker 225:40

But once in a chair

Presenter26:11

Morgan by Rickard Strauss performed by Dame Janet Baker with Gerald Moore at the piano.

Presenter26:17

You've been married to your wife, Jill, for forty two years, Yo Yo Ma, and you have two children together. Your own parents were extremely involved in your musical development. How important was it to you that your children had music lessons and music in their lives?

Yo-Yo Ma26:33

Well, it was important to my wife.

Yo-Yo Ma26:35

Because I said, We don't need to give them music lessons. No, you got it. This is the family business. They have to, you know, learn some instrument. They should know what. And thank goodness she did that. So they took piano lessons. My son loves to sing. My daughter played the violin. And they both grew up with so many, you know, musicals and stuff. And they know all the words. And when they get together, they sing in a way. And what I think is music is part of human literacy. It's one more way to access our inner lives and our external lives.

Presenter27:10

Yo-yo ma, we've got to make some room to hear your next disc. It's your seventh.

Yo-Yo Ma27:15

Track seven is Moscow Night. For me it's the voice of Dmitry Horodovsky. This man died way too young.

Yo-Yo Ma27:25

For those of you that are hearing this.

Yo-Yo Ma27:27

look up the performance on YouTube, for example, because they're singing in an open square, maybe it's Red Square, and you see the audience. And for me, this is the ultimate example of a communal experience.

Yo-Yo Ma27:44

you see the audience just swooning and appreciating every single phrase. And it made me actually love the piece. And on a desert island, I just want to remember

Yo-Yo Ma27:59

That is an example of

Yo-Yo Ma28:02

What

Yo-Yo Ma28:03

Humanity is when we are actually having that.

Yo-Yo Ma28:08

Communal

Yo-Yo Ma28:09

Transcendent.

Yo-Yo Ma28:11

Experience.

Speaker 228:16

Yes, Lishnifsador here Sorz de Zor Lada, Kakmyador Padmaskovni Yerchivi

Yo-Yo Ma28:46

Uh

Speaker 228:51

Ahietorah.

Speaker 228:55

Podmoskovani Erecher

Presenter29:07

Moscow Nights by Vasily Solof Yovsadoy, performed by Dmitry Kovorostovsky with the Moscow Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Konstantin Obelyan. Yo, Yama, I'm about to cast you away to the desert island with your discs. Of course, you'll have your discs to keep you company. You've described music's power to change the atmosphere of a place. It's invisible, but nonetheless, it is present in a space and almost has a physical effect on the place where we are. What do you think your discs will do for the island?

Speaker 229:22

Of course, you'll have your

Yo-Yo Ma29:23

Uh

Yo-Yo Ma29:37

The environment is going to change me. And if I'm there for

Yo-Yo Ma29:42

A month, a year, forever.

Yo-Yo Ma29:44

That will again make me reassess who am I, what is my purpose, what is the island, do I listen to the music in my head?

Yo-Yo Ma29:55

Do I create new music? The sounds of nature. Maybe they're bird songs. Maybe there are new sounds that when you strike a rock, there's something I've never heard before, that maybe there's something

Yo-Yo Ma30:11

that inspires me when I look at the tides. And ultimately, there's going to be a blend, as has always happened in how music has been formed in the past.

Yo-Yo Ma30:23

and will be in the future.

Yo-Yo Ma30:25

And what are the things that I will want to try to replicate from home? The music certainly is part of it. Oh, I remember Leonard Cohen, Strauss, Moscow Knights. Or maybe there will be a new music that comes from the crackling fire and the birds and animals and insects. And that's what we are when we are living, is that we're constantly.

Yo-Yo Ma30:52

Taking in new information, stimulate it, and trying to blend it into our existence so that it's meaningful.

Presenter31:00

One more disc then, before you go, what's it gonna be?

Yo-Yo Ma31:04

This disc I wore out the l p.

Yo-Yo Ma31:08

I listened to it when I was twelve years old for a whole year.

Yo-Yo Ma31:13

I know every note of that recording.

Yo-Yo Ma31:15

Because it meant the world to me.

Yo-Yo Ma31:18

It represented everything.

Yo-Yo Ma31:21

that music could be and Schubert especially

Yo-Yo Ma31:25

So in the joyous moments there's the slight wistfulness. Within the dark cloud there's a little ray of sunshine. And it's like it's always mixed. So the patina of Schubert is is always very evocative. In many ways he was a

Yo-Yo Ma31:42

modest person, but he was able to describe.

Yo-Yo Ma31:47

Like Bach, both the most profound human emotion with the most glorious description of transcendence. Every time I hear it or play it I get the goosebumps.

Yo-Yo Ma32:01

And it's a physical reaction to a transcendent emotion.

Presenter33:01

The fourth movement from Schubert's Trio No. Two in E flat major, played by Alexander Schneider, Pablo Casals and Mieczys Woryszovsky.

Presenter33:10

So yo yo ma, the time has come. I'm going to cast you away. The time has come. It is time to go.

Yo-Yo Ma33:14

The time has come.

Presenter33:17

I'm going to give you the books to take with you. You can have the Bible and the complete works of Shakespeare. You can also have another book of your choice. What would you like?

Yo-Yo Ma33:21

Yeah.

Yo-Yo Ma33:26

Aha, I don't want to be greedy, but um

Yo-Yo Ma33:30

I

Yo-Yo Ma33:31

Would love.

Yo-Yo Ma33:34

The Encyclopædia Britannica.

Presenter33:36

Is that

Yo-Yo Ma33:37

Is that possible?

Presenter33:38

Yes, it is possible.

Yo-Yo Ma33:40

I'm the type of nerd that would have relished opening any one of the 24 volumes.

Yo-Yo Ma33:49

And just reading an article says, wow, who knew? That's really fascinating.

Yo-Yo Ma33:55

And if I'm gonna be on a desert island.

Yo-Yo Ma33:57

And I want to have all of whatever that I've left behind.

Yo-Yo Ma34:02

I would want that. One of the greatest things we could have

Yo-Yo Ma34:06

Educationally, or as humans, is access.

Yo-Yo Ma34:10

That would be the closest thing to access of everything that I would have left behind.

Presenter34:17

Well, we can definitely do that for you. We can also on perhaps a more frivolous note offer you a luxury item to make your time on the island more enjoyable. What will you choose?

Yo-Yo Ma34:20

Uh

Yo-Yo Ma34:27

I would choose a tool.

Presenter34:30

Now you can't have anything practical. Your luxury item has to be for sensory stimulation or relaxation only.

Yo-Yo Ma34:30

Can't have anything practical.

Yo-Yo Ma34:34

Send

Yo-Yo Ma34:37

I would love not

Yo-Yo Ma34:39

A tool as a survival thing, but a tool as something that I love deeply, which is my penknife, because specifically a Swiss Army knife, because I always, well, in the days of when we could carry it on board, I always travel with it because it's the most.

Yo-Yo Ma35:01

Wonderful thing to have. It's the best companion.

Yo-Yo Ma35:04

to have under the greatest variety of circumstances I can find myself in.

Presenter35:11

Because you love it and because the Swiss Army knife is undeniably one of the most pleasing items in history, we can absolutely give that to you. I mean, I I just wouldn't be that cruel. As if I wouldn't allow that. It's yours.

Yo-Yo Ma35:22

Yeah.

Yo-Yo Ma35:23

Oh, thank you.

Presenter35:24

Finally, perhaps this is the most difficult question for you, if you had to save just one of the disks that you've shared with us today.

Presenter35:32

Which would it be?

Yo-Yo Ma35:34

I would say I'd take the Schubert.

Presenter35:36

Yoyama, thank you very much for letting us hear your Desert Island Discs.

Yo-Yo Ma35:40

Lauren, thank you. It was a joy speaking with you. It's great.

Presenter35:58

Hello, I really hope you enjoyed that interview with the cellist Yo Yo Ma. His performances have been chosen by so many castaways over the years that it's especially great to finally have him on the island in person.

Presenter36:11

We've cast many other classical musicians away and you can download their programmes from BBC Sounds or our programme archive. If you enjoyed Yo-Yo's music choices, you might want to find Dame Janet Baker's Desert Island Discs and also Jacqueline Dupre's Favourite 8. Well worth a listen. You can hear their programmes if you search through BBC Sounds or the Desert Island Discs website. Join me next time when my guest will be the actor and director Richard Wilson.

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Welcome to Descendants, the series which looks into our lives and our pasts and asks something pretty simple How close are each of our lives to the legacy of Britain's role in slavery, and who does that mean our lives are linked to?

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Narrated by me, Yesterday Ward, we hear from those who have found themselves connected to each other through this history.

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Whoever you are, wherever you are in Britain, the chances are this touches your life somewhere.

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Somehow.

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Descendants from BBC Radio Four.

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Listen now on BBC Sounds.