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Category: Reviews

  • Favourite Cello Concertos: Gramophone

    Favourite Cello Concertos

    Julian Lloyd Webber (vc) with various artists.

    A first-class package in every way. As we know from his live performances, Julian Lloyd Webber has a firm, richly coloured and full-focused tone; moreover it records well. His lyrical warmth projects tellingly over the entire range and his involvement in the music communicates consistently and tellingly. He has chosen his accompanists well too. His account of the great Dvorak concerto is full of passionate feeling, with a tender Adagio, and Neumann and the Czech Philharmonic give him thoroughly persuasive backing, playing with plenty of bite in tuttis, the Slavonic exuberance always to the fore. His performance of the Elgar concerto has the huge advantage of Lord Menuhin as his partner, a true Elgarian if ever there was one. It is a performance of real understanding and rare intensity, which never oversteps the work’s emotional boundaries and is imbued with innate nostalgia: the Adagio has a haunting Elysian stillness. The Saint-Saens is played for the splendid bravura war-horse that it is, and we are also given a rare chance to hear the original, uncut version of Tchaikovsky’s Rococo Variations. Lloyd Webber soon proves that it is superior to the truncated version used in most other recordings; moreover his spontaneous warmth in Tchaikovsky’s long-drawn lyrical lines, which he makes sound very Russian in character, makes a perfect foil for the sparkling virtuosity elsewhere.

    Among the encores the lovely Traumerei stands out for its freely improvisational feeling and Lloyd Webber’s own catchy, slight but romantic personal tribute to Jacqueline du Pre is played as an ardent, tuneful and timely postscript.

    IM

  • Peter Maxwell Davies: The Scotsman

    Edinburgh Youth Orchestra **** St Mary’s Metropolitan Cathedral

    By SUSAN NICKALLS

    THE last of the Edinburgh Youth Orchestra’s Spring concerts drew a capacity audience to hear a varied and ambitious programme which highlighted the considerable abilities of these young musicians.

    Close to 100 players delivered a powerful and well-paced performance of Stravinsky’s The Firebird: Ballet Suite. At full-strength the EYO are a force to be reckoned with and it was only in some of the more exposed areas that the occasional weakness was to be found.

    In Khachaturian’s Adagio from Spartacus, the laid-back rhythms often came adrift although the string sound was solid throughout. Prokofiev’s musical tale for children, Peter and the Wolf, is popular with audiences of all ages, and the EYO, with narrator Julian Lloyd Webber, gave an animated and often humorous performance. The soloists, who all played superbly, wore hats to indicate their particular character, with conductor En Sao entering into the spirit of things by wearing a wolf hat.

    Lloyd Webber then took up his cello to play David Horne’s rather lightweight arrangement of Peter Maxwell Davies’s piano interlude Farewell to Stromness for cello and string orchestra. The lilting melody suited the mellifluous tones of Lloyd Webber’s cello, which were spun like gold in the bright acoustics, but this was often undermined by an accompaniment which tended to flatten rather than lift the tune.

  • Evening Songs: Hi-Fi Critic

    Available on Amazon

    JULIAN LLOYD WEBBER JIAXIN CHENG AND JOHN LENEHAN

    Evening Songs – Delius and Ireland songs arranged for cello and piano by Julian Lloyd Webber

    (Naxos Classical 8.572902)

    A nice idea; songs by John Ireland and Frederick Delius arranged for cello and played by JLW. 2012 brings fifty years since Ireland died and one hundred and fifty since Delius was born. The transcriptions work well and are played with feeling, tenderness, good tone and love. Ireland’s Sea Fever and The Holy Boy are here; indelible melodies. There’s a good range included. This release is not just for cellists; it’s good to have a different light shone on these ‘settings’, which still sing. Jiaxin Cheng (Mrs JLW) performs on two tracks and John Lenehan is a sensitive pianist. The sound is nicely tangible while allowing space around the instruments.

    Colin Anderson

  • Evening Songs: The Independent

    Available on Amazon

    “…his new Naxos album ‘Evening Songs’ is an endearing collection of ‘songs without words’ by two composers he has long championed: John Ireland and Frederick Delius…Julian has a well-developed nose for enduring melody and ‘Evening Songs’ chronicles an abundance of it.”

    Edward Seckerson

  • Evening Songs: Daily Express

    Available on Amazon

    Daily Express 27th January 2012

    Evening Songs Review

    JULIAN LLOYD WEBBER JIAXIN CHENG AND JOHN LENEHAN

    EVENING SONGS – DELIUS AND IRELAND **** (Naxos Classical)

    This selection of some of Delius’ most beautiful songs arranged for cello and piano demonstrates the composer’s gift for melody.

    His Serenade From Hassan is haunting. The cellists, who are husband and wife, explore the thoughtful elegance of John Ireland’s songs, in particular Her Song.

    PAUL CALLAN

  • Evening Songs: The Strad

    Available on Amazon

    Evening Songs CDEVENING SONGS – DELIUS/IRELAND

    Songs arr. cello & piano

    Julian Lloyd Webber, Jiaxin Cheng (cello), John Lenehan (piano)

    NAXOS 8.572902

    Two notable anniversaries celebrated in a delectable collection of song arrangements to coincide with the 150th anniversary of the birth of Frederick Delius and the 50th of the death of John Ireland, Julian Lloyd Webber has specially created cello arrangements of a number of their songs. From the rather sad beauty of Delius’s

    Through the Long Years to the dark mood of Ireland’s The Three Ravens, they all lend themselves ideally to the instrument.

    Familiar among the 21 tracks will be Ireland’s Sea Fever and Delius’s Love’s Philosophy, together with two pieces known in other formats – Delius’s Serenade from the opera Hassan and Ireland’s The Holy Boy. Most of the other songs of are seldom heard today, and of the three receiving their first Delius’s reflective Birds in the High Hall is particularly noteworthy.

    Lloyd Webber has championed Delius’s Cello Concerto, and John Lenehan has revealed his affection for Ireland in recordings of his complete piano music. Add the two players together and you have ideal collaborators. Using a portamento like a singing voice, Lloyd Webber’s cello playing silky smooth and the intonation immaculate, a pleasure doubled by Jiaxin Cheng’s contribution in two Ireland pieces arranged for cello duo and piano. This is not a disc of high contrasts, but one of great beauty with a recorded sound to match.

    DAVID DENTON

  • Evening Songs: ConcertoNet.com

    Available on Amazon

    Evening Songs CDDelius. Ireland – ‘Evening Songs ‘

    Julian Lloyd Webber, Jiaxin Cheng vsc John Lenehan pf

    Nexos 8572902 (63’ • DDD)

    If one desires music soothing to the ear, brimming with expressive sentimentality, look no further than Evening Songs. Naxos’s soigné release of selected songs derived from Frederick Delius and John Ireland is worthy of repeat sojourns, the perfect antidote for tranquility.

    Frederick Delius’ name most often connects with his larger, orchestral works such as the Florida Suite, Brigg Fair or even the opera, A Village Romeo and Juliet, but in his early life he began writing songs of an organic nature. There is a satisfying collection of his works that are interspersed with those of John Ireland’s art songs. Brought up in a literary family, Ireland was particularly drawn to poetry, thus providing him with a vast choice of subjects. A classic during World War I, Ireland’s Sea Fever is only one of several fitting pieces to land on this CD.

    Renowned cellist Julian Lloyd Webber (younger brother to composer Andrew Lloyd Webber) deftly reinterprets what must have been going on in the minds of Delius and Ireland. Set against John Lenehan’s evenly tempered harmonics, Lloyd Webber draws his strings with sincere and transparent passion, making maximum use of each note to evince the proper amount of sincere reflection. Julian Lloyd Webber arranged most all of the album’s 21 pieces, and they performed with wonderful translation excepting Evening Song and In Summer Woods both of which are played by wife, Jiaxin Cheng. In particular, Webber delivers a beautifully arranged “Serenade” from the incidental music to Hassan, but each listener will end up having their own stash of favorites.

    Quietude dominates Evening Songs, and this Naxos recording will encourage listeners to explore other musical marvels emanating from both British-born composers.

    Christie Grimstad

  • Evening Songs: Independent IE

    Available on Amazon

    Evening Songs CDDelius. Ireland – ‘Evening Songs ‘

    Julian Lloyd Webber, Jiaxin Cheng vsc John Lenehan pf

    Nexos 8572902 (63’ • DDD)

    We all enjoy classical music . . . we just don’t know it

    People like classical music, it’s just that they’re not really aware of it. Now, who said that?

    It was Britain’s pre-eminent cellist, Julian Lloyd Webber, who backed up his argument by pointing to the numerous TV themes and movie scores — never mind advertising jingles — that have made standards out of not always obvious extracts from the classical repertoire.

    Think of the signature tune of the BBC series The Onedin Line (the Adagio from Khachaturian’s second Spartacus and Phrygia suite). Or the film Death in Venice (the Adagietto from Mahler’s ‘Fifth Symphony’). Or the famous TV ad (‘Happiness is a cigar called Hamlet’) that underscored its message by laying pictures over Bach’s ‘Air on the G String’.

    Julian Lloyd Webber’s latest release could be taken as a statement of that belief, for there is nothing not to like in his selection of music by British composers Frederick Delius and John Ireland (Evening Songs — Naxos: 8.572902).

    We’re likely to hear a lot of Delius over the coming months — 2012 is the 150th anniversary of his birth. It’s also the 50th anniversary of Ireland’s death, but he tends to get less exposure, which is a shame. In his day, his music was immensely popular, even putting the likes of Holst, Vaughan Williams and Bax in the shade.

    Lloyd Webber’s collection does ample justice to his two featured composers, taking us somewhere beyond the beaten track.

    In the case of Delius, the collection draws on the songs that he wrote which tend to be forgotten in the concentration on his much more famous orchestral output (‘On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring’, ‘Summer Night on the River’). In transcribing 10 of them into songs without words for cello and piano (his collaborator is John Lenehan), Lloyd Webber shines the spotlight specifically on the rich melodies enhanced by evocative harmonies.

    ‘Birds in the High Hall Garden’, originally a Delius setting of a Tennyson poem, is a captivating case in point, the sound of the birds circling at twilight a counterpoint to the boy with his girl picking wildflowers in a wood.

    The CD’s title is inspired by a John Ireland miniature called ‘Evening Song’ which could easily have been the inspiration for the term “delightful”.

    Lloyd Webber has turned this into a beautifully lilting cello duet, which he plays along with his wife, Jiaxin Cheng, and which melds, together with the caresses of Lenehan’s piano, into the perfect lullaby.

    Ireland’s most famous song is also here, his setting of John Masefield’s poignant poem ‘Sea Fever’ (“I must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky”). Evening Songs is music for reflection and relaxation, an affirmation that classical music is, above all, to be liked.

    George Hamilton

  • Evening Songs: The Observer

    Available on Amazon

    Evening Songs CDDelius. Ireland – ‘Evening Songs ‘

    Julian Lloyd Webber, Jiaxin Cheng cellos John Lenehan piano

    Nexos 8572902 (63’ • DDD)

    I play this CD when my wife is out of the house because, alas, she does not share my love of Delius and Ireland, which is a pity as I find their gift for melody irresistible and their songs particularly attractive, even if they speak of a vanished age. Of the 21 examples here, 18 are transcriptions by Julian Lloyd Webber, who plays with an appropriately vocal sensibility. John Lenehan’s always welcome accompaniments adorn highlights such as Delius’s “Slumber Song”, Ireland’s “Sea Fever” and Eric Fenby’s glorious arrangement of Delius’s “Serenade” from Hassan. Two duets – Ireland’s “In Summer Woods” and Delius’s “Birds in the High Hall Garden” – feature Lloyd Webber’s wife, Jiaxin Cheng, so there’s harmony on that particular home front on the subject of Delius and Ireland!

    Stephen Pritchard

  • Evening Songs: Gramophone

    Available on Amazon

    Evening Songs CDDelius. Ireland – ‘Evening Songs ‘

    Delius Five Songs from the Norwegian – Sunset; Slumber Song. Birds In the High Hall Garden. Three Shelley Songs – Love’s Philosophy. Over the mountains high. Hassan – Serenade. Seven Danish Songs – Through long, long years; In the Seraglio Garden. Little Birdie. With your blue eyes

    Ireland Spring Sorrow. Evening Song4. Sea Fever. The Holy Boy. Baby. The Three Ravens. Hope. Ladslove. Summer Schemes. Her Song. In Summer Woods

    Julian Lloyd Webber, Jiaxin Cheng vsc John Lenehan pf

    Nexos 8572902 (63’ • DDD)

    Lloyd Webber and wife in English ‘songs without words’

    In this interesting experiment of ‘songs without words’ by Delius and Ireland, Julian Lloyd Webber brings an especially sensitive ‘voice’ to the Barjansky-Stradivarius cello on which Alexandre Barjansky gave the premiere of Delius’s Cello Concerto in Vienna in January 1921, not simply by creating that traditional ‘singing’ tone we expect from the instrument but also in the subtle changes of register and tone he lends to his own arrangements (all bar three), with the legerdemain of John Lenehan’s delicate accompaniments. Hearing the songs of both composers without the texts, and played with such attention to contour and gradation, reminds us just how masterly and diverse both composers were in their art of the solo song, and indeed how far each composer developed his own individual concept of the genre.

    In the case of Delius, the early, more Grieg-inspired ‘Sunset’, ‘Slumber Song’ and ‘Birds in the High Hall Garden’ (a first recording), and the pianistically athletic ‘Love’s Philosophy’, contrast markedly with the languorous ‘In the Seraglio Garden’ and yearning ‘Through long, long years’ from the Seven Danish Songs of 1896-97, with their sense of extended, symphonic melody and pointillistic harmonies. Among the choice of Ireland’s songs there are the old favourites ‘Sea Fever’ and ‘The Holy Boy’ (in Ireland’s own arrangement), but they are played here with an insight into that nostalgic melancholy that only Ireland knew how to articulate.

    The sweep of ‘Ladslove’ and the introspection of ‘Her Song’ are also deeply affecting in this idiom, as are the two duets with Jiaxin Cheng of Ireland’s two part-songs, ‘Evening Song’ and ‘In Summer Woods’. As the title of the disc suggests, this is an ideal collection to while away the summer evenings.

    Jeremy Dibble