October 22nd 2013
A Tale of Two Cellos
Miniature masterpieces for cello
A Tale of Two CellosJulian Lloyd Webber has done cellists a big favour in transcribing rare and delectable miniatures from the vocal repertoire, says Julian Haylock
The original repertoire for two cellos is hardly awash with masterpieces, so Julian Lloyd Webber’s skilled transcriptions of (mostly vocal) pieces are especially welcome. Doubly welcome in fact as he has focussed on the byways of the repertoire, unearthing a host of delectable miniatures many of which will be unfamiliar to string players. How many cellists, for example, are likely to have come across Holst’s ‘Choral Hymns from the Rig Veda’? Yet to hear the third set’s opening ‘Hymn to the Dawn’ played like this, arranged for four cellos and harp (with star guests), you’d have thought it was a rediscovered original.
No less beguiling is Monteverdi’s ‘Interrotte speranze’ (from his 7th Book of Madrigals), in which the Lloyd Webbers are joined by Guy Johnston and Catrin Finch, and the latter ‘also graces the other ‘early’ music tracks in this collection: Purcell’s heartfelt’ Lost is My Quiet’ (the duet original is sung unforgettably on EMI by Victoria de Los Angeles and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau) and the Dolorosa from Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater.
Schumann’s propensity for the alto and tenor registers transfers especially well to the cello, and Lloyd Webber has unearthed two absolute gems in the form of ‘Summer Calm’ (an enchanting rarity that remained unpublished in Schumann’s lifetime) and ‘Evening Star’ from the Op.103 Mädchenlieder (or ‘Girl’s Songs’). We’re all familiar with the much-loved music of Saint-Saëns, Rachmaninov and Dvorák, but I doubt there are many who can easily recall (respectively) the Ave Maria, the chorus ‘The Waves are Dreaming’ or any of the Moravian Duets. Even further off the well-beaten Romantic track are Ethelbert Nevin’s ‘O that we two were maying’ and Joseph Barnby’s ‘Sweet and Low’, exquisitely phrased mini-masterpieces that deserve to be far better known. Radiantly engineered (Mike Hatch) at the Yehudi Menuhin School, this inspired, captivatingly played collection represents the perfect musical antidote for all those long winter evenings ahead.
Artists: Julian Lloyd Webber (cello), Jiaxin Lloyd Webber (cello), John Lenehan (piano), Catrin Finch (harp), Guy Johnston (cello), Laura van der Heijden (cello)
Julian Haylock
