Zwilich / Bailey / Santa Rosa Symphony Cello Concerto & Other Works CD

The great cellist Zuill Bailey begins this program with the world premiere recording of Zwilich's beautiful Cello Concerto, a new and important work traversing many elements of the cello's singing sound. This marks Bailey's 6threcording for Delos. The amusing Peanuts½ Gallery follows with a quote from Beethoven, which anyone familiar with the famous Charles Schulz cartoon knows is Schroeder's toy piano passion. Short movements portraying many of the other Peanuts½ cartoon characters follow. Zwilich says that the Romance for Violin and Chamber Orchestra "celebrates some of the simple pleasures of playing the fiddle," and that the Prologue and Variations for String Orchestra highlights the "special sonorities, character and expressiveness of the string orchestra." Conductor Francesco Lecce-Chong and the remarkable Santa Rosa Symphony bring full warmth and color to the music on this program.