The Mail on Sunday 15th April 2001
For he’s a jolly good cello…
Julian Lloyd Webber was 50 yesterday, a fitting moment to pay tribute to an outstanding artist and one of music’s nicest and most approachable of men. He recognises no musical barriers and effortlessly straddles the divide between popular and serious that cuts off so many others from their audience. His next album will be arrangements of his brother’s most memorable melodies. The Elgar Cello Concerto is an award-winning piece, while Softly Awake My Heart from Samson And Delilah sits comfortably alongside the world premiere recording of the Cello Concerto the great Rodrigo himself wrote for Julian in 1982. His outstanding Elgar, with Yehudi Menuhin conducting, is coupled with a particularly fine account of the Dvorak Concerto recorded in Prague with the Czech Philharmonic. DAVID MELLOR
