Musical Times September 1977
Modern British Cello Music – Fricker Cello Sonata
Julian Lloyd Webber (cello), John McCabe (piano).
L’Oiseau-Lyre DSLO18
Fricker: Cello Sonata, Op. 28. Berkeley: Duo.
McCabe: Partita for solo cello. Dalby: Variations.
This is a happy grouping of four representative works by notable British composers. Lennox Berkeley the doyen makes the briefest contribution, a well-wrought piece of 1971 that makes an impression beyond the number of its notes. Fricker’s 1956 sonata was first sketched on Ischia and pays tribute to the Walton of its dedication in some spiky rhythms and music of broad lyrical span; it is taut and characterful. McCabe’s unaccompanied partita of 1956 makes an effective mosaic with a preponderance of sombre, passionate movements, closely linked thematically but of wide emotional range. Martin Dalby’s variations date from the same year (he was 24) and are one of the fruits of his Italian experience. The music is lean and imaginative, with a fantastic pierrot quality that finely exploits the gamut of the cello. Julian Lloyd Webber has all the musicality of his astonishing family, an enviable technique, and will doubtless soon develop the breadth of vision to tap the resources of his instrument to the full. John McCabe makes an ideal partner, with problems of balance solved before they occur.
ROBERT ANDERSON
Gramophone April 1977
Modern British Cello
Julian Lloyd Webber (cello), John McCabe (piano).
L’Oiseau-Lyre DSLO18
Fricker: Cello Sonata, Op. 28. Berkeley: Duo.
McCabe: Partita for solo cello. Dalby: Variations.
Many readers will know what a brilliant and musically penetrating cellist Julian Lloyd Webber is; although young, he has won the highest plaudits. This record confirms them; music may be thankful that he has a special concern about the work of living composers.
In case you feel that these are not exciting composers for a brilliant young cellist to advocate, I should say that the Fricker is a powerful work in four movements, strongly lyrical in invention, sympathetic but not a bit ordinary in expression, the sort of music that Brahms might have composed if he had been born a century later, after Schoenberg but untouched by the vanguard of our day. It is a real duo for both performers. The Berkeley is less bold but strongly sustained also, a slow piece followed by a fast one: here Lloyd Webber’s telling articulation and sense of tone-colour are deployed exceptionally; he renders to Berkeley one hundred per Cent of what Berkeley imagined when the piece was written, and the recording gives both partners air and vibrancy in the acoustic.
McCabe’s solo Partita is vivid and full of musical sap, individual but creatively indebted to J.S. Bach, and sometimes Bartok (unimpeachable models). The “Funeral March” seems the weak point, the rest quite admirable, like the performance. Dalby’s Variations are active and well made, somewhat subdued for this lively composer until the fiery finale which releases tension, in this performance, as if a tap had suddenly been turned on. Not the most exciting music in the catalogue, but vital, and a record that gratifies good equipment. W.S.M.
William Mann