What is the most challenging repertoire for any artist to commit to disc? Bach’s Cello Suites, Beethoven’s Violin Concerto, Mozart’s piano sonatas? No, surely it’s the bon-bon record, which is what this essentially is, its title ‘Songs from the Arc of Life’ notwithstanding. Such a name could, in other hands, have seemed pretentious or – worse – cheesy, but not here, for Yo-Yo Ma and Kathryn Stott take us on a musical journey through life that also celebrates their 30-year musical friendship. Where else to begin but with Bach, via Gounod’s gentle transformation into an Ave Maria of the C major Prelude that launches the ‘48’?

Highlights are many, and they skirt the dangers of slow-miniature overload deftly. ‘Après un rêve’ followed by Salut d’amour was one danger spot, but such is the directness of Ma’s tone, confiding but never sentimental, that it instead makes a telling combination, especially as the Elgar is followed by Gershwin’s palate-cleansing First Prelude. And then we’re back in England for the Delius Romance, a delectable dream of a piece. It’s not all slow and ethereal, though: the Tango jalousie by Gade (Jacob, not Niels) has real zest, while the extended Il bell’Antonio by Giovanni Sollima, with its arching cello lines that soar above a repeated-note piano backdrop, is warmly evocative. Even a miniature as hackneyed as ‘The Swan’ comes up sounding fresh, such is the imagination and reactiveness of these two artists. Another inspired touch is the inclusion of a movement from Messiaen’s Quatuor pour la fin du temps, which is mesmerising in Ma’s hands. And by this point, you realise that the title of the disc is utterly apt: this is a meditation on life, not a bag of musical pick‘n’mix. We end as we began, with an Ave Maria, this time by Schubert. The recording is wonderfully immediate, as is the conversation between the artists in the booklet.