Both composers on this recording, Johann Benjamin Gross (1809-48) and Julius Rietz (1812-77), belonged to the artistic circles around Robert Schumann and Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy. This recording presents a selection of cello concertos, a genre that experienced a significant upturn during the 19th century. The two Rietz pieces at the center of this recording, the Fantasy for Violoncello and Orchestra, op. 2 and the Violoncello Concerto, op. 16, likely date back to the mid-late 1830’s.
