April 20 2017
Orchestra of the Swan, Birmingham Town Hall
Full Article by Christpher Morley – click here
Review, April 2017
A Cracking Night! by Preston Witts
List content will go here
Category: Reviews
-
60th Birthday Concert
Strad Magazine July 2011
60th Birthday Concert
ROYAL FESTIVAL HALL, LONDON, 14 APRIL 2011
Julian Lloyd Webber attracted an A-list cast of musical friends to celebrate his 60th birthday with him. As a cellist he has always been equally at home in traditional repertoire and popular music – he was famously featured in the South Bank Show TV signature tune – and here he was at ease with Cleo Laine, whose performance of ‘He was Beautiful’ with Lloyd Webber accompanying wooed the audience. The cello’s role in education was celebrated with the ‘In Harmony’ children’s project playing Frank Biddulph’s Hot Gold, while cellists from the Royal College of Music performed Klengel’s Hymnus and the Aria from the fifth Bachianas Brasileiras by Villa-Lobos. Here soprano Danielle de Niese wove her magic, shortly followed by violinist Tasmin Little and organist Jane Watts in a charming Benedictus by Julian’s father William Lloyd Webber, which glistened with post-Elgarian harmonies.
Nor could a celebration of Julian’s career omit his brother Andrew’s influence, hence The Phantom of the Opera cunningly strolled into the musical fare. A world premiere from Eric Whitacre for cello and orchestra was a welcome present, but the Elgar Cello Concerto partnered by the Phiharmonia Orchestra under Christopher Warren-Green had greater impact: Lloyd Webber performed it with awesome technical élan and a real empathy for the musical idiom.
Joanne Talbot
Mail on Sunday April 24th 2011
Julian Lloyd Webber, Anniversary Gala, Royal Festival Hall, London
*****
As a postscript to my tribute to Julian Lloyd Webber a fortnight ago, his 60th birthday gala was a joy because of the inspired blend of material, both familiar and unfamiliar.
Of course, room was found in the first half for Julian’s Elgar Concerto, but then he really let his hair down – and he’s still got a lot of it. There was some Villa-Lobos sexily sung by Danielle de Niese; some amazing Ellington with Cleo Laine throwing off her 83 years with all the charisma of a great trouper; and a beautiful, newly composed piece for cello and strings by the American Eric Whitacre in the best English pastoral tradition.
Room was also found for tributes to Julian’s father William, whose beautiful Benedictus was radiantly played by Tasmin Little, and birthday greetings from brother Andrew, accompanying Julian and his wife Jiaxin in some Phantom Of The Opera arrangements.
During a terrific evening Julian proved his versatility over and over again under the benevolent baton of another great friend, Christopher Warren-Green, and a tireless Philharmonia.
David Mellor
-
Encore! Travels with My Cello Vol.2
March 1987
Julian Lloyd Webber (vc);
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra / Nicholas Cleobury.
Lloyd Webber’s cello is off on its travels again: Catfish Row, Sweden, Turkey, France, Skye, Spain, Japan, ‘Somewhere’, Germany, India, Vienna. And one geographically unidentifiable, Vangelis for his Une apres-midi. This is written for synthesizers, which on this occasion imitate an orchestra unbelievably well; indeed, the live solo cello, perhaps unnerved by all the surrounding machinery, here takes on a bit more of the standard synthesizer quality than its accompanists do.
Otherwise it feels at home, singing its way naturally through a repertoire varied not only by geography. Most is familiar: Bess, Jesu joy. Song of India, and such; some is not: Hamabe no uta is not, Taube’s Nocturne is not. For this last Taube’s son, Sven-Bertil the actor, contributes some guitar-playing: for the Carmen Habanera there is also an effective guitar, but played by a different player. Basically the accompaniment is the RPO contributing some gorgeous sounds, but also inevitably raising the question of whether these sounds are out of proportion accompanying a solo string-player in basically light repertoire. Once, for McCartney’s When I’m 64, highly uncharacteristic sounds (not at all out of proportion!) are made: I expect the players enjoyed themselves greatly!
And of course Lloyd Webber contributes, everywhere, gorgeous cello-playing: always simple in outline, always just right for the simple outline concerned. He contributes, too. short notes on the various pieces, which (seemingly exceptionally for today) are actually printed in the right order! So far as they go, that is; the note on the last piece seems to have been mislaid somewhere.
M.M.
-
Favourite Cello Concertos
(Philips 462 505-2, two CDs)
I PREFER Julian Lloyd Webber’s Elgar Cello Concerto to Jacqueline Du Pre’s. And you can now get his noble performance without having Menuhin’s anaemic Enigma Variations, because it has been re-issued in a set of cello concertos. I have a soft spot for JLW’s Dvorak Concerto, too, and it is also now in better company than on its original CD. The other main works here are Tchaikovsky’s Rococo Variations and Saint-Saens’s A minor Concerto. The package also includes shorter works including Faure’s Elegie and Saint-Saens’s Allegro Appassionato and The Swan. The accompaniments are provided by various orchestras and conductors.
****
Tully Potter
-
English Idyll: Sunday Telegraph
Available on Amazon CRITICS’ CHOICE
Lloyd Webber, Academy of St Martin’s/ Marriner.
Julian Lloyd Webber is in persuasive form for this pleasant selection of short English works for cello and orchestra or piano, several of them associated with the cellist Beatrice Harrison, the Elgar concerto’s first and one of its finest exponents. Some of the pieces are arrangements. The Vaughan Williams Romance, for instance, is the slow movement of his Tuba Concerto (arranged by the composer), and it sounds even more smoothly lyrical on a stringed instrument.
Of two Elgar pieces, the Romance is also the composer’s transcription for cello of a work he conceived for bassoon. A Pastoral and Reel, written for Harrison by Cyril Scott, is a curiosity that requires panache to bring it off. Holst’s Invocation is one of his warmest and most melodic pieces, and there are items by Dyson and Grainger, plus two of the works the incapacitated Delius composed in 1930 with Eric Fenby’s co-operation. Lovely performances.
MICHAEL KENNEDY
-
Cradle Song
January 1996
Julian Lloyd Webber (vc); John Lenehan, Pam Chowhan, Richard Rodney Bennett (pfs).
Philips © CD 442 426-2PH (57 minutes: DDD).
This album provides a companion to Julian Lloyd Webber’s much admired “Cello Song” a couple of years ago (10/93), and once again he has skilfully managed to choose a sequence of pieces that retains the same overall mood without monotony – though that consideration may in any case not much worry someone seeking late-night ‘easy listening’. This attractive disc actually begins with a piece by Lloyd Webber his first ever and written in 1992 for his six-week-old son David. Indeed, the inspiration for this whole album of lullabies is, he tells us, “the innocence of childhood” and the cellist also thinks it his “most personal recording”.
There are 21 tracks here and all are attractive music from, and for, a child’s world, though not everything is strictly speaking a cradle song. Lloyd Webber plays consistently with an ideal intimacy and care, and John Lenehan, who also composed the lullaby called Alice, is an excellent partner – though Richard Rodney Bennett and Pam Chowhan also participate in their own arrangements. The thoughtful and imaginative booklet- essay is on cradle songs generally and doesn’t attempt to deal with the individual pieces, but few purchasers of this disc will mind that. They will also not mind that the recording, close but not distractingly so, favours the lovely sound of Lloyd Webber’s cello. This attractive disc deserves to be very popular.
CH
-
Cello Moods
July 1999
This ripe-toned assemblage of cello miscellanea celebrates Julian Lloyd Webber’s 15-year association with Philips Classics. Throughout this period, he’s made world-premiere recordings of over 50 works, and there are surprises amongst more familiar and populist fare here, too. The eloquent Rheinberger Cantilena (from Organ Sonata No. 11) is as compelling in this reworking as it is unexpected, while the Caccini and Glazunov works are encountered far less often than either deserves.
Otherwise, many of the usual favourites are included, though this excellent disc is not a compilation from previous Philips issues, but an entirely new programme taped only last year. Quite at home in lighter fare as in pivotal repertoire, Julian Lloyd Webber lavishes minute care over every detail in these accomplished and strongly idiomatic readings. With diligent and sympathetic orchestral accompaniments (principally from James Judd and the Royal Philharmonic) and a splendidly open and natural recording ambience, this is a far from run-of- the-mill collection. Recommended.
Michael Jameson
*****
-
The Art of Julian Lloyd Webber
Julian’s party piecesMany happy returns to one of British music’s finest. Cellist Julian Lloyd Webber celebrates his 60th on Thursday with a birthday concert at the Royal Festival Hall, London, a two-hour special on Classic FM and a two-CD retrospective, The Art Of Julian Lloyd Webber, which includes a charming, newly recorded novelty.
It’s a rarely heard Arioso for two cellos and strings by Gian Carlo Menotti dating from the Fifties, on which Julian is partnered by his wife, the Chinese cellist Jiaxin Cheng, who is expecting their first child soon.
But that won’t prevent her playing on Thursday at a gala that also features Julian in Elgar’s concerto, of which he is, in my view, the foremost living exponent, as well as in a new piece for cello by American choral composer Eric Whitacre, provided he’s actually finished it by then.
The violinist Tasmin Little, the soprano Danielle de Niese, jazz legend Cleo Laine and brother Andrew complete an all-star line-up, ringmastered by Melvyn Bragg, whose South Bank Show had as its signature tune a lively set of Paganini variations composed by Andrew and played by Julian.
I shall be presiding over the cutting of the cake at the party afterwards, because Julian has been a dear friend for many years.
But it’s for more reasons than friendship that I hail him today as a musician of real distinction. His Elgar recording, with Yehudi Menuhin, was chosen as the finest ever version by BBC Music Magazine. His Walton concerto was described by the authoritative Gramophone magazine as ‘beyond any rival’. Julian has also recorded a lot of neglected music, especially English pieces by the likes of Frank Bridge and John Ireland, that would have been forgotten but for him.
Sadly, neither of them features in the new Universal tribute album, but the 33 items included nevertheless span an extraordinary range, and this is a feast for cello lovers.
Julian has premiered more than 50 new works for his instrument, including a concerto by Philip Glass, given its first performance in Beijing, and a delightful late masterpiece from Joaquin Rodrigo, Concierto Como Un Divertirnento.
He is dedicated to live music, which is why he gives so generously of his time to chair the Government’s In Harmony programme, intended to emulate Venezuela’s El Sistema in giving underprivileged youngsters a chance to learn an instrument. Julian has never followed fashion, which is why he has played so much neglected music – and also accounts for his lifelong devotion to Leyton Orient.
David Mellor
-
A Tale of Two Cellos
February 2014
Festival’s coup for audience on Sunday morning
Julian Lloyd Webber & Jiaxin Cheng, Old Swan Hotel, Harrogate.
The Harrogate International Festivals’ first Spring Sunday Series coffee concert at the Old Swan Hotel, was a real treat. A wonderful performance by one of the world’s leading cellists – none other than Julian Lloyd Webber and his accomplished cello playing wife Jiaxin Cheng. Not forgetting Pam Chowhan on the piano. Wow!
It was to be a glorious musical romp through established cello pieces and other music, possibly written for the female voice, but this morning arranged, in most instances, for two cellos, but interspersed with the odd solo cello and solo piano! How to comment on 21 pieces of music, plus an encore? Not practical, so I will mention just a few of them.
As one might expect most of the items were relatively short otherwise you would have had great difficulty in packing so many pieces into two hours, including an interval. Summer Woods by Ireland was delightful, actually quite a well known piece, Prelude from Shostakovich’s The Gadfly had wonderful harmonies and was a change from The Romance, more normally heard. Bach’s Adagio in G, again well known and exquisitely performed. The Little Beggar Boy by Piazzolla written in memory of a beggar boy who used to come to a restaurant that he frequented, selling roses. The Harvesters by Dvorak – great fun. After the interval Jiaxin played solo Bach’s Prelude & Gigue from Cello Suite No. 1, she is a fine musician in her own right.
Julian Lloyd Webber introduced each piece, giving insights into the origin and the reason he had chosen it. At this point he lost his music, but opted to continue without any apparent problem, such is his ability. The next piece was a delightful play on words – entitled Lost is my Quiet, JLW commented it reflected his disturbed sleep pattern since the arrival of their baby two years ago.
Pam Chowhan was a superb accompanist with the ability to be quietly in the background, but yet a powerful player when the music so required. In this instance she played Rachmaninov’s No. 12 Prelude in G sharp minor with great sensitivity.
We moved on to the family music, as he described it with pieces by his father and famous brother Andrew, including Pie Jesu written in memory of their father’s death – an excellent composition and now very popular.
Humour returned as, for the next piece Sweet and Low by Barnby, they swapped instruments – Jiaxin playing Julian’s Stradivarius! – at the end of the piece she pretended not to give it back to him. For an encore we had a complete change to Bryant’s All I have to do is Dream popularised by the Everly Brothers.
I think this was one of the finest concert performances I have been lucky enough to enjoy, as I know the audience did. The musicianship was beyond criticism. Julian Lloyd Webber did us proud and we loved it.
By George Pyman, Harrogate Advertiser
-
A Tale of Two Cellos
January 31st 2014
Review: Julian and Jiaxin Lloyd Webber at Bramall Music Building, Birmingham
Cellist Julian and wife Jiaxin must have had an interesting time choosing a programme to suit the many tastes anticipated. With confident support from pianist Pam Chowhan more than 20 pieces covered a wide time–scale with some charming arrangements of songs and interestingly adjusted works for the three musicians.
Father William and brother Andrew both featured with heart stopping sonorous works:Moon Silver, Pie Jesu – truly lovely.
It is said that the cello is the closest instrument to the human voice, so with A Tale of Two Cellos Mr and Mrs sang musically throughout with true togetherness.
Maggie Cotton
Julian’s party pieces