Zwilich: Cello Concerto & Other Works / Bailey, Lecce-Chong, Santa Rosa Symphony Clearance Pictures

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 6th recording for Delos. The amusing Peanuts® 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 Peanuts® 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.

REVIEWS:

Ellen Taafe Zwilich writes music of bountiful imagination, and this disc of several orchestral works cements her reputation as among our very best contemporary composers. The newest work on this excellent recording, Zwilich’s 2020 cello concerto, was premiered during lockdown and is a remarkably vital achievement, buoyed by brilliant soloist Zuill Bailey. The other pieces are equally vigorous, highlighted by the delightful Peanuts Gallery (1996), a subtly coloured workout for pianist Elizabeth Dorman and the Santa Rosa Symphony (led by conductor Francesco Lecce-Chong) in six tongue-in-cheek movements mirroring Charles Schultz’s beloved characters: Schroeder, Linus, Snoopy, Charlie Brown, Lucy, Peppermint Patty and Marcie.

— The Flipside (Kevin Filipski)

Zwilich’s well-known combination of tonal, melodic music with modes and modern harmonies tossed in for flavor are clearly on display here, but so too is Zuill Bailey’s cello. In fact, except for his second recording of the Bach Cello Suites, issued a few months ago, I can’t recall hearing any other recording by him that so perfectly captures his gorgeous, manicured tone. In fact, judging just by those two recordings, I would go out on a limb and say that his tone has actually grown in richness and depth of sound. He used to sound like Emanuel Feuermann; he now sounds like Mstislav Rostropovich.

— The Art Music Lounge (Lynn René Bayley)