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Category: Reviews

  • Delius Romance

    The Times 25th June 1976

    Lloyd Webber / Seow

    Purcell Room. Hitherto, cellists have had four works by Delius at their disposal, although a fifth, early work was known about. That is the Romance (1896), which has just been published. It received its first British performance, two days after its premiere at the Helsinki festival, by Julian Lloyd Webber and Yitkin Seow last night. In Mr Lloyd Webber, for the first time since Jacqueline du Pre took the Concerto and Sonata into her repertory, Delius has an eloquent exponent able to draw out the long-spanned sequential writing and make emotional rhetoric out of a style which can easily sound merely prolix. The new work proved to be a modest recital piece, after the manner of the Caprice and Elegy. One could not fail to admire Delius’s sure handling of the tenor register of the instrument. Lloyd Webber revealed a firm, well focused tone which spoke evenly throughout all the registers, with certain intonation and, above all, a cool, levelheaded way with the music which never overstated its case.

    Keith Horner

  • Delius Caprice and Elegy

    Classicalsource.com September 24, 2012

    Julian Lloyd Webber & John Lenehan at Wigmore Hall – Ireland and Delius

    The anniversaries of two composers and the cellist connecting them were marked in this BBC Radio 3 Lunchtime Concert at Wigmore Hall. The 50th-anniversary of John Ireland’s death and the 150th-anniversary of the birth of Frederick Delius are relatively well documented. Binding the works of the two together is the cellist Beatrice Harrison, born 120 years ago, the dedicatee of the Delius’s Sonata and his Caprice and Elegy, and who gave the first performance of Ireland’s Sonata in 1924. Julian Lloyd Webber is a passionate advocate of both these composers, and with regular accompanist John Lenehan has a long standing familiarity with each work. Delius’s Caprice and Elegy is from 1930 and is much more concise than the Romance, the Caprice part especially effective with its tumbling five-note motif. Lloyd Webber’s cantabile line gave the melody a light touch, and the chromatic Elegy was soft-hearted but profound. The appropriate encores were Ireland’s arrangement of his song The Holy Boy, followed by Lloyd Webber’s transcription of the equally well-loved Sea Fever.

    Ben Hogwood

  • Delius Caprice and Elegy

    Penguin CD Guide 2001

    English Idyll

    English idyll (with ASMF, Neville Marriner): VAUGHAN WILLIAMS: Romanza. ELGAR: Romance in D min., Op. 62; Une idylle, Op. 4/1. Discs: 2 Pieces for cello and chamber orchestra. GRAINGER: Youthful rapture; Brigg Fair (arrangement). DYSON: Fantasy. IRELAND: The holy boy. WALFORD DAVIES: Solemn melody. Holst: Invocation, Op. 19/2. Cyril Scott: Pastoral and reel. The highlights of Julian Lloyd Webber’s programme of English concertante miniatures are the Holst Invocation, with its nocturnal mood sensitively caught, and George Dyson’s Fantasy. Grainger’s passionate Youthful rapture is given just the right degree of ardent espressivo, as are Delius’s warmly flowing Caprice and Elegy, written during the composer’s last Fenby period for Beatrice Harrison. The two transcriptions, Vaughan Williams’s Romanza and the Elgar Romance, were both arranged for the cello by their respective composers. Lloyd Webber gives the full romantic treatment to John Ireland’s simple tone-picture, The holy boy, and to Grainger’s arrangement of Brigg Fair. For the closing Cyril Scott Pastoral and reel he returns to a more direct style, with pleasing results. Sympathetic accompaniments and warm, atmospheric recording.

  • Debussy Cello Sonata

    Turkish Daily News 27th June 2007

    Classic brilliance resonates in ancient walls

    Music gently whines through the corridors of the ancient Byzantine structure Hagia Eirini, at the concert, Festival Meetings II, performed by an acclaimed cellist, cello quartet and pianist. As four cellists raise their bows in the air and strike the cello strings with utmost grace, Bach’s Air in D Major gently resonates in a former Eastern Orthodox Church. As the music gently whines through the corridors of the ancient Byzantine structure and rises to the atrium, a surreal musical journey begins. Festival Meetings II, featuring an acclaimed cellist, Julian Lloyd Webber, cello quartet Cellistanbul and pianist Pam Chowhan is part of the 35th International Istanbul Music Festival. The night was not over yet, as Cellistanbul joined Webber on stage to perform the last three compositions. The silence was extensive and finally broken with loud applause. The applause brought Webber and the Cellistanbul quartet back on stage to perform an encore. A standing ovation ended a magical myriad of classical ethereal sound that was performed brilliantly.

  • Debussy Cello Sonata

    South China Morning Post 14th September 1998

    Julian Lloyd Webber is a multi-talented international celebrity, held in the high regard by all those who love classical music. During the past week, I have heard him talk to music students about the state of classical music today, teach some of the Academy’s most promising young cellists in public master class and present a brilliant public recital. As a performer, his technique and musicality are beyond reproach. In the Debussy Sonata (1915), Faure Elegie and Delius Sonata, every nuance, from the merest whisper of sound, had an expressive function within the phrase. Lloyd Webber’s concept of his work included all the grand gestures normally associated with classical repertoire. Following the concert, Lloyd Webber, with his superb accompanist John Lenehan, took the time to autograph recordings and chat with a long line of fans. It was a pleasant sight. Merrili Debski

  • Debussy Cello Sonata

    The Independent 19th December 1994

    Julian Lloyd Webber, Wigmore Hall, London

    There were no frills on offer for Julian Lloyd Webber on Thursday at the Wigmore Hall. No record signings or glossy promo packs. Just an evening of simple, honest music-making, like he always said it should be. Said it on this page, in fact, over a week ago, in an interview that raised expectations about his style of playing. His programme, with French and Russian classics, new works and old novelties, suggested no lack of ideas. He began with Britten’s Sonata in C. Yet neither here nor in Debussy’s late Sonata were the players working at full pressure, despite a noble view of the Prologue and an encounter with the Serenade. Instead, these works gave a preview of the full picture to come: a tonal range that stretched from the lustrous alto timbre to a crisp, succulent bass. The reward came after the interval, in a faultless reading of Rachmaninov’s testing Cello Sonata. Lloyd Webber’s rapt pianissimo was an asset in the plainsong world of another premiere, James MacMillan’s Kiss on Wood. Nicholas Williams

  • Debussy Cello Sonata: Palau de la Musica

    Debussy Sonata for Cello

    Palau de la Musica 13th April 1994

    La Vanguardia and ABC quotes

    “The Intervention of an exceptional cellist – a rare thing in Barcelona – Julian Lloyd Webber, was much better. He possesses a Stradivarius with the most beautiful sound that can be imagined. He marvellously presented a Programme of various works, best of which was a masterly version of the Sonata for cello and piano by Debussy.” LA VANGUARDIA (16th April 1994)

    “Julian Lloyd Webber extracted the sarcastic humour and the poetic melancholy from the Debussy Sonata for cello and piano, with its evocative Habanera rhythms conveyed by the pizzicatos in the second movement, and the Spanish atmosphere evoked by the vigorous Finale. From Bridge to Britten, Faure, Dvorak and Scott, everything he played reflected a musician of real personality and interest.” ABC (16th April 1994)

  • Debussy Cello Sonata

    Gramophone November 1979

    Debussy and Rachmaninov Cello Sonatas

    WEA Enigma’s new record of the Rachmaninov and Debussy cello sonatas, expertly played by Julian Lloyd Webber and Yitkin Seow (K53586, 9/79), is fully competitive and holds its own in quite illustrious company. The two sonatas are not otherwise coupled together, and the Rachmaninov miniatures, Op. 2, if slight, are charming and have the benefit of novelty. The sound is more than just acceptable, and even though the tones of these extremely accomplished young players are not displayed to full advantage, it is still both truthful and attractive enough to make it a useful alternative and a worthwhile contender in the Debussy.

  • Bryars Cello Concerto

    The Guardian 27th November 1995

    Gavin Bryars premiere

    GAVIN BRYARS’ cello concerto was commissioned by Philips Classics for Julian Lloyd Webber. The concerto is both elusive and allusive, and demands repeated hearings. It has a contemplative intimacy that requires solitude and a sound system. Bryars produces a long, post-Romantic, one-movement nocturne, redolent of Mahler and Strauss. Lloyd Webber plays with great fervour and remarkable variety of expression.

    Tim Ashley

  • Bryars Cello Concerto

    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.