A couple of years ago the ABC ran a poll to establish what Australians consider to be their favourite musical instrument and the hands-down winner was the cello. The great Russian maestro Mstislav Rostropovich likened it to “a voice – my voice”, and over its 400-year history it has often been one with an Italian accent.

Enter Umberto Clerici, former Sydney Symphony Orchestra Principal Cello, now carving out an impressive career as a conductor and Artistic Director of Queensland Symphony Orchestra. He forsook the baton for one of his two 18th century Italian instruments to lead the much-acclaimed Omega Ensemble in three concerts spanning cello-based works from the Baroque to the present day.

Umberto Clerici: La Musica Notturna. Photo © Laura Manariti

If there was a Federico Fellini-like lush pan shot to much of the program, there was also a piquant dash of Pedro Almodóvar with a 10-strong string orchestra arrangement of Luigi Boccherini’s extraordinary Night music of the streets of Madrid.

But before we got there Clerici made a minor adjustment to the playing order of the three featured works by the electrifying cellist-composer Giovanni Sollima, described by Yo-Yo Ma as...