When award-winning cellist Michael Samis discovered the neglected Concerto for Cello and Orchestra in D Minor, Op. 82, by Carl Heinrich Reinecke (1795-1883), its “soaring melodies and brilliant virtuosity” immediately inspired him to learn it. Of this brilliant and prolific Romantic-era composer’s nearly 300 works, the vast majority are rarely included in today’s performing repertoire and are largely unknown to the musical public.

Delos has thus joined forces with Michael in this – his first solo album – hoping to restore this appealing and beautifully crafted work to today’s concert halls, as well as to revive the musical world’s interest in the life’s work of a composer who is ripe for rediscovery.

The album also offers a varied assortment of remarkable shorter works by Sir John Tavener, Ernest Bloch (for solo cello), Robert Schumann (with orchestra), and Osvaldo Golijov (with marimba). Michael’s smooth and sonorous cello is beautifully complemented by the Gateway Chamber Orchestra under the assured baton of conductor Gregory Wolynec (Reinecke, Schumann) and accomplished marimbist Eric Willie (Golijov).