Obra: Grāmata čellam (The Book of Cello)

Klaus Mäkelä returns to Cleveland with a recent piece by Jimmy López Bellido, prefacing a pair of English works that feature Sol Gabetta, Thomas Hampson and The Cleveland Orchestra Chorus. 

Igor Stravinsky once described Sergei Rachmaninov as "a six-and-a-half foot scowl". His Second Symphony – often a lugubrious affair – was here turned into something urgent and vital. 

After a stirring Marseillaise, a sombre mood hung over the first half of this Proms season opener, with Sol Gabetta's lyrical, intimate Elgar.