Per Violoncello e Orchestra-The Cello Concerto No. 2 is Nino Rota's third contribution to the genre but he does not include the early Cello Concerto dating back to 1925 in his own list of works: this composition only received its very much delayed first performance in Milan in November 2010. The much later Cello Concerto No. 2 was created around the same time as Rota s work on the soundtrack for The Godfather II for which the composer received an Oscar in 1975. Although there are no direct quotations from the film-track in this concerto the section in 6/8-time displays a slight hint of the well-known Sicilian Pastorale.
