Britten Cello Sonata

Guardian 15th October 1980

St John’s – Park Lane Group

Re-hearing Britten’s 1961 Cello Sonata, Opus 65, written at the start of his association with Rostropovitch, was an uncanny experience. I had forgotten just how potent were the dark elegaic landscapes, the abrasive, hard-hitting disturbances. The intensity of Julian Lloyd Webber’s performance, grave and wild by turns, was riveting.

Edward Seckerson