The Washington Post 1st August 1991
Cellist shines even when scores don’t
Julian Lloyd Webber plays Saint-Saens Cello Concerto
Julian Lloyd Webber has two surprising releases this month on the Philips label, one of them very good indeed.
The British cellist is at the peak of his powers in a collection of music by Saint-Saens, Honegger, Faure and d’lndy His playing is also of the highest order in a collection of music by his brother Andrew Lloyd Webber, but here the younger Lloyd Webber falls victim to arrangements unworthy of this family’s considerable talents.
First the good news. Mr. Lloyd Webber’s elegant cello style is ideally suited to the French repertory His way with this music makes for one of the most deeply satisfying cello recordings in years.
Best of all is the 1930 Honegger Cello Concerto, which balances the order of reinvigorated classicism with the new freedom of jazz. Mr. Lloyd Webber’s cello sings. The sound grows In a delicate thread that belies its strength — rhythmically alert and never flagging in energy.
The cellists sparing use of vibrato and his exquisite control reveal unsuspected melancholy in the conversational middle movement. Even more effective is the devastating simplicity he brings to Faure’s well-known Elegie, Op. 24, played here In its orchestral version.
Without resorting to exaggeration or overblown phrasing, Mr. Lloyd Webber brings out Lisztian depths in a rarity: Vincent d’lndy’s Lied, Op. 19.
The gifted Yan Pascal Torrtelier conducts with wit and more than a touch of urbane melancholy. The English Chamber Orchestra, with its flexible strings, is once again a source of immense pleasure.
Octavio Roca
