The Strad June 1998
Delius and Grieg cello music
DELIUS Cello Sonata; Two Pieces; serenade from Hassan; Romance
GRIEG Cello Sonata in A minor, Intermezzo
Julian Lloyd Webber (cello),Bengt Forsberg (piano)
Philips 454 458-2
‘When I first heard Grieg,’ Delius wrote, ‘it was if a breath of mountain air had come to me.’ How true are those words in this disc, as we move from the hot-house environment of his music to the limpid beauty of Grieg’s Intermezzo and Sonata. They are a world apart, a fact made all the more obvious by Julian Lloyd Webber’s excellent performances.
The Delius Sonata (1916) is a score of intense beauty conceived as a single uninterrupted arch, and Lloyd Webber invests the music with an abundant spectrum of tone colour. Maybe his use of portamentos almost errs on the generous, yet one feels his love and affection for Delius, the soaring lines of the Caprice, the first of the Two Pieces, being a moment of erotic radiance.
For the Grieg, Lloyd Webber totally changes his approach and tone quality, the gentle lyricism of the Intermezzo perfectly captured. His view of the sonata is more introverted than normal, with rather muted moments of drama. It is a view I enjoyed, and in Bengt Forsberg Lloyd Webber has a partner who ideally complements his interpretations.
DAVID DENTON
