Customer Reviews

Yo-Yo Ma - Inspired by Bach No. 1, The Music Garden (Cello Suite 1) [VHS]

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I, like many others, have great respect for Mr. Ma. When I found that he did a video series, I was overjoyed. This video describes how Ma tries to get a music garden planned for the city of Boston. For political reasons, the prospect for the Bach music garden was rejected in Boston and recieved by a city in Canada. In this video you hear the greatest solo piece ever written - The solo cello suites of Bach. I thoroughly enjoyed this video and all the others in the series.

I bought this video as a gift for my daughter, an elementary school beginner celloist. I hoped she could see a great celloist perform by viewing the video. Unfortunately, most of the file footage is a documentary on the logistics of creating a garden "Inspired by Bach."

The video apparently has value for someone who wants to learn about an urban garden project but it is practically useless for the Yo-Yo Ma fan who wants to watch Ma perform.

A few years ago, Yo-Yo Ma created in collaboration with a number of artists and filmmakers a 6-part film series "Inspired by Bach", which explored the visual quality of Bach's suites for unaccompanied cello.

In Part 1, Ma worked with garden designer Julie Moir Messervy to create a garden in Boston, inspired by the First Suite. The plan fell through due to the lack of commercial financial support. Toronto then showed an interest in the project. The film, directed by Kevin McMahon, ended when private donors were secured and construction work was ready to start.

The idea of "Inspired by Bach" was a great one. But watching the "Music Garden" (part 1 of the series) was a frustrating experience. People behind this film did not intend to follow this project to its very end. Instead, they had a deadline when the film must be finished. That explained why the film ended where it ended.

Viewers, including myself, must have asked "What happened then?" ... The Music Garden was opened in June 1999, as part of the City of Toronto Harbourfront Parks System!

P.S. I notice that some reviewers gave very low ratings for the DVDs of "Inspired by Bach" (which I just bought), mainly because they thought they were buying the concert recordings of Yo-Yo Ma's CDs of the same name. My advice is, to avoid disappointment, please make sure you know what you are buying. The CDs are the by-products of, or the accompaniment to, the "Inspired by Bach" film series, not the other way round.