Gramophone Good CD Guide
Cello Concerto FAREWELL TO PHILOSOPHY
Julian Lloyd Webber vc, Charlie Haden db, Nexus. Point Music 454 126 2PTH (75 minutes: DDD). Recorded 1995.
Rather like Sibelius’s Swan of Tuonela, Gavin Bryars’s 1995 Cello Concerto (or Farewell to Philosophy) emerges from among shadows, its solo line climbing sadly and patiently until the long first section takes its leave among Parsifal-style string figurations. Lloyd Webber’s tone seems perfectly suited to the job, being full-bodied and expressive but relaxed enough to blend with the components of a predominantly dark accompaniment.
