Daily Mail 8th August 1997
Walton Cello Concerto
Julian scores a rare treat
BRITTEN CELLO SYMPHONY & WALTON CELLO CONCERTO: Julian Lloyd Webber, (Philips)
IF ANYONE is going to make Benjamin Britten’s Cello Symphony and William Walton’s Cello Concerto popular, it is Julian Lloyd Webber.
Both are late works by their composers and both have suffered from neglect – in the Britten’s case, because of a certain air of East Anglian bleakness. The Walton, on the other hand, has always been considered a sort of poor relation of the much earlier Viola Concerto and Violin concerto.
Lloyd Webber’s new disc is beautifully recorded and he is sympathetically accompanied by Sir Neville Marriner with the St Martin Academy. JLW would be the first to admit that he cannot match the oversized personality of his hero Rostropovich, for whom the Britten work was written. But in his own more restrained, classical fashion, he comes even closer in some ways to the quiet kind of Englishness represented by Britten.
The Walton is beautifully played by both cellist and orchestra and goes straight to the top of the all-too-few recommendations for this work.
Even more than some of the foreigners who have played the concerto, JLW and Sir Neville bring out the Mediterranean quality of Walton’s scoring. *****
Tully Potter
