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Category: Reviews

  • Rodrigo Concierto Como Un Divertimento

    Gramophone August 1982

    Julian Lloyd Webber plays the Rodrigo Cello Concerto

    LALO Cello Concerto in D minor.

    Julian Lloyd Webber(vlc): London Philharmonic Orchestra / Jesus Lopez-Cobos.

    One wonders if Julian Lloyd Webber, before chasing off to Spain to commission a new cello concerto from Rodrigo, knew of the existence of the Concierto en modo galanie, written in 1949 and recorded recently by Robert Cohen (HMV ASD4198, 4/82). So the newest concerto must be regarded as No. 2, and what a delightful encore it makes. It is even more Spanish in feeling than the earlier work, the melodies of the outer movements having a strong local flavour. The first movement sets off in the friendliest way with a catchy main theme, and the hauntingly atmospheric Adagio nostalgico brings another tenderly sinuous melody which easily insinuates itself into the subconscious. The finale, a characteristic molo perpeiuo, also has an engaging central lyrical strain. Altogether this is a listening experience to make the hearer rejoice that Rodrigo has written yet another piece of distinction that goes out of its way to communicate and give pleasure in its melodic contours and its craftsmanship. The performance is wholly recommendable. Lloyd Webber is totally attuned to the spirit of the music, fully equal to its technical fireworks, and his playing is imbued with warmth. He is admirably accompanied and well recorded.

    Ivan March

  • Rodrigo Concierto Como Un Divertimento

    Musical Opinion April 2010

    Romantic Cello Concertos CD

    JULIAN LLOYD WEBBER: ROMANTIC CELLO CONCERTOS

    Rodrigo: Concierto como un divertimento; Delius: Concerto for cello and orchestra+;

    Lalo: Cello Concerto in D minor

    Julian Lloyd Webber, cello; London Philharmonic Orchestra, Jesus Lopez-Cobos, conductor; +Philharmonia Orchestra, Vernon Handley, conductor

    Sony Music 88697570022

    1 hour 17 minutes

    This welcome reissue contains three of the soloists best concerto performances, especially the Delius (which is inspired). The work that Rodrigo wrote for Lloyd Webber, with its arresting bolero opening and sustained melodic interest, was first heard in 1982; the Sunday Times verdict of sumptuously listenable-to’ remains the most apt epithet The Lalo has always been a valuable contribution to the restricted cello repertoire with its appealing blend of strength and fancy all clothed in highly effective writing for the instrument, one wonders why it is not heard more. Both these concertos need a conductor who is thoroughly at home in the Spanish idiom and can bring his own flair to the proceedings (just as Pedro de Freitas Branco did in the case of the Lalo on the old Decca 78s with the legendary Suggia). López-Cobos is ideally cast here in support of his flamboyant soloist, and the extremely happy results carry to the listener.

    The Cello Concerto was Delius’s favourite among his three string concertos, admired not only by Percy Grainger and others in his immediate circle but (perhaps a little surprisingly) by Elgar, who said he yearned to conduct it. Delius’s amanuensis Eric Fenby attributed its relative neglect to its difficulty and its rhapsodic form, though this particular recording has shown ever since its first incarnation on LP that the two essential requirements are a cellist and a conductor who thoroughly understand Delius’s idiom and can get inside his sound-world: in other words, two Delians through and through. Lloyd Webber and Vernon Handley both on top form and in perfect harmony of understanding, fully meet these requirements in this finely- tuned conception: with the newly-remastered recording sounding better than ever, this performance maintains its position as first choice.

    Lyndon Jenkins

  • Rodrigo Concierto Como Un Divertimento: Mail on Sunday

    January 10th, 2010

    Romantic Cello Concertos CD

    JULIAN LLOYD WEBBER: ROMANTIC CELLO CONCERTOS ****

    If you like musical discoveries, Julian Lloyd Webber does a fine job with three easily overlooked cello concertos by Joaquin Rodrigo, Frederick Delius and Edouard Lalo. His generously filled 77-minute reissue of excellent recordings made in the Eighties is ideal for those who think romantic cello concertos begin and end with Elgar and Dvorak. Julian himself commissioned the Rodrigo from the then 80-year-old blind Spaniard, and although it’s just a bit of froth, it’s really charming, and will appeal to anyone who loves the same composer’s celebrated Aranjuez concerto.

    The Delius is a considerable work, written just four years after Elgar’s concerto, and tirelessly espoused by Beatrice Harrison, who did so much to make the Elgar acceptable. Unlike the meticulously planned Elgar, it’s rhapsodic and sprawling in typical Delius style, but treasurable too.

    David Mellor

  • Rodrigo Concierto Como Un Divertimento

    Yorkshire Post 13th November 2009

    Romantic Cello Concertos CD

    JULIAN LLOYD WEBBER: ROMANTIC CELLO CONCERTOS ****

    One of the jewels among Delius recordings, Julian Lloyd Webber’s loving, relaxed and extraordinarily beautiful account of the Cello Concerto creates a scene of autumnal reverie. It contrasts with a robust reading of the Lalo, with the London Philharmonic adding suitable weight. Rodrigo’s ‘Concierto como un divertimento’ was composed for him, its demanding passages flying around the instrument’s fingerboard, Lloyd Webber capturing its many changing moods with impressive playing. Good 1980s sound and a gift at this price.

    David Denton

  • Rawsthorne Cello Sonata

    The Financial Times 15th December 1987

    Julian Lloyd Webber’s afternoon recital at the Wigmore Hall on Sunday, with pianist Peter Pettinger, brought the first performance of Malcolm Arnold’s Fantasy for solo cello, along with sonatas by Beethoven and Debussy and some other English items. Frank Bridge’s Scherzetto for cello and piano was played, and his haunting little Elegie. Alan Rawsthorne’s Sonata of 1949 made a powerful impression with its cogent argument and dipped manner of musical speech: Rawsthorne has a marvellous way of taking stock neo-romantic rhetoric, stripping away all that is fleshy and false about it, and presenting us with a discourse which is very subtly arresting. Peter Pettinger had rather more to do in this sonata of equals than just give the cellist support, and his solo passages were shapely and striking. Lloyd Webber’s performance was articulate, impassioned, large-toned, persuasive.

    The Arnold new work, his Opus 130 no less (though he has not latterly been producing as copiously as of old), is extremely attractive, quite short, and wholly unpretentious: a continuous unfolding of seven little sections, each vividly characterised and concisely written. The opening Andantino (reprised at the end as the’ seventh section) is broad and declamatory. The following Vivace sports a funny bouncy rhythm reminiscent of “Half a pound of tuppenny rice” which is immediately cut off each time it appears by a mournful lyrical phrase – the effect is peculiar, pointful and, although small-scale, distinctively Arnoldian. The Lento is melodious and, again, mournful (here I thought of the tune of one of the sadder Brahms Hungarian Dances). Next comes a march, then an affecting pizzicato serenade, then another Lento, one of strange melancholy, and finally the opening again, which returns satisfyingly and with, of course, changed significance. The Fantasy is a memorable and rather tearful little opus, a perfect gift to cellists of even average ability: Lloyd Webber’s virtuosity was scarcely taxed by it, but he did it proud.

    Paul Driver

  • Prokofiev Ballade

    Diapason October 1998

    Sonate pour violoncelle et piano.

    SERGE PROKOFIEV: Ballade op. 15.

    DIMITRI CHOSTAKOVITCH: Sonate pour violoncelle et piano.

    Julian Lloyd Webber (violoncelle), John McCabe (piano).

    Philips 422 345-2 (CD : 148 F). 1988. Minutage: 57’11”.

    Un magnifique rédial de musique de notre temps, faisant se rencontrer Chostakoviich et Britien, avant qu’une dernière amitié ne les lie dans la vie comme dans leur musique. Julian Lloyd Webber traite avec une égale splendeur leurs deux sonates, pourtant distantes de plus d’un quart de siècle. Ce traitement donne un nouvel éclat à l’Opus 65 de Britten. John McCabe, sans faire oublier le compositeur au piano avec Rostropovitch, s’impose dans le dialogue, tantôt de-bussyste, tantôt pré-classique de cette suite en cinq danses. Lloyd Webber, sans chercher à retrouver le lyrisme enjôleur de Slava, joue le jeu du Dia-logo original, accentue l’hispanisme stylisé du Scherzo-pizvcalo, se souvient de Delius dans l’Elegie; il installe une tension dramatique post-schubenienne, qui donne une réelle consistance à la Marcia, dans sa démarche proche des Pas dans la neige debussystes, ainsi qu’aux abrupts changements de climat du Moto perpétua final. Ce même traitement convient un peu moins bien à la Sonaie très classique de forme de Chostakoviich. Le déroutant Allegro initial exige une grande fluidité de phrasé tout en étant marqué de contrastes sous-jacents, à la manière de l’Opus 65 de Chopin.

    PIERRE-E. BARBIER

    TECHNIQUE C.D. : 6

    Image sombre, manquant de brillant

  • Messiaen ‘Louange a l’eternite de Jesus’

    BBC Music Magazine November 1993

    Messiaen’s ‘Quartet for the End of Time’

    Julian Lloyd Webber (vc); John Lenehan (pf).

    “Lloyd Webber possesses a magnificent rich tone (and instrument). The inclusion of the cello solo from Messiaen’s “Quartet for the End of Time’ was an inspired idea.”

  • Messiaen ‘Louange a l’eternite de Jesus’

    Gramophone October 1993

    Cello Song

    Julian Lloyd Webber (vc); John Lenehan (pf).

    As the title of this disc implies, all the pieces contained herein are rather in the same slowish- paced, lyrical vein, but their sequence has been cleverly chosen so that there is still plenty of variety to keep the listener’s attention. Some of the items are original cello and piano pieces, others are skilful arrangements, and there is a good mixture ofwell-known and unusual offerings. Elgar’s bassoon Romance translates particularly well to the cello, as do the Brahms, Debussy and Dvoräk songs, and only in the arrangement of Grieg’s piano piece To the Spring did I feel that a cello was a little out of place. The Messaien excerpt is the longest and the most profound item, and it exists quite happily äs an entity away from the rest of the Quatuor.

    Throughout the programme Julian Lloyd Webber plays with exceptional sensitivity, sympathy and tonal beauty – in fact it would be difficult to find better performances of this kind of repertoire anywhere on records of today or yesterday. John Lenehan gives good support, and Philips have provided a mellow, roomy quality of recording.

    Alan Sanders

  • Menotti Arioso for 2 Cellos

    Mail on Sunday April 10th 2011

    Julian’s party pieces

    Many 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

  • Massenet Meditation

    Penguin Guide to CDs Yearbook 2000/1

    Cello Moods Review

    ‘Cello moods'(with Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, James Judd): FRANCK: Panis angelicus.

    ELGAR: Chanson de matin; Salut d’amour. Julian LLOYD WEBBER: Jackie’s song. DEBUSSY: Reverie. BACH: Suite No 3: Air.

    MASSENET: Thals: Meditation. CACCINI: Ave Maria. B0RODIN: Nocturne. GLAZUNOV: Mélodie, Op. 20/1.

    CHOPIN: Nocturne, Op. 9/2. BOCCHERINI: Cello concerto: Adagio. RHEINBERGER: Cantilena. BRUCH: Kol Nidrei.

    *** Ph. Dig. 462 588-2 [id.1]

    Decorated with extraordinary artwork by Jane Powell, which shows an unclothed cellist, covered only with shadowy music staves (the cello hiding any suggestion of immodesty), this collection of lollipops is obviously aimed at the cross-over market. The playing is of high quality, with none of these famous tunes sentimentalized. Franck’s Pants angelicus and Massenet’s Meditation here sound almost noble on the cello. The other highlights are the charming Glazunov Melodie, the Rheinberger Cantilena, and the very eloquent Max Bruch Kol Nidei. If you enjoy this kind of programme it couldn’t be played better or recorded.