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Category: Reviews

  • Menotti Arioso for 2 Cellos

    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

    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.

  • Ireland Cello Sonata

    20th November 1980

    Julian Lloyd Webber

    Along the road to celebrity, Julian Lloyd Webber has found the space and time to make a speciality of English cello music of the first half of the 20th century. The niche suits his generous tone and unabashed phrasing well; the sonatas by Ireland and Delius that made up the first half of his recital at the Wigmore Hall last night require the most committed advocacy to cohere and sustain attention.

    But sumptuousness may not be all. Mr. Lloyd Webber played both sonatas superbly, yet gave us in the process a surfeit of lyrical effusion. Placed so uncomfortably close in a programme, Ireland and Delius can seem to mimic each other’s failing: a tendency to uncontrolled soliloquy in one, a want of rhythmic firmness in the other. Ireland’s sonata may be one of most powerful pieces, unerringly thematic with a fine slow movement and splendid transition to the blustering finale (both showing Mr. Lloyd Webber at his best), but it lacks definition. In structure it hangs together more obviously than Delius’s single-movement sonata, but given (as here) a sure hand with the modulations of mood and temper the Delius feigns more cogency, more finality.

    The pianist for the Ireland sonata and for two short pieces by Bridge was Eric Parkin, dependable and confident, but for the Delius Mr. Lloyd Webber was joined by Eric Fenby, a pleasant, unspectacular tribute to Delius’s amanuensis. Mr. Fenby handled the predominantly chordal accompaniment to the sonata most sensitively, and was surely impressed by the scope and intelligence of the cello playing.

    by Andrew Clements

  • Ireland Cello Sonata

    October 2012

    Three Musicians Display Empathy for John Ireland’s Music

    John Ireland – Cello Sonata in G minor; Fantasy Sonata for clarinet and piano

    Brahms – Trio for piano, clarinet and cello in A minor, Op 114

    Octogenarian, Jeanie Moore MVO, despite her diminutive stature, punches considerably above her weight when fighting for the cause of classical music in the Plymouth area. At a time when local funding is getting increasingly more difficult to source, even in a city of almost 260,000 inhabitants situated in the South West of England, she once again has managed to bring one of the UK’s leading cellists back to the area, as part of her 20th International Concert Series, an on-going programme that has seen a large number of acclaimed artists come to the city over many years.

    It was, however, no accident that she chose Julian Lloyd Webber for this special concert to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of the death of British composer, John Ireland’s. As she announced to the sell-out audience at the start of the recital, as a concert-organiser of many years’ standing, she had been able to give Lloyd Webber the opportunity for one of his earliest recitals, when he was a mere twenty-two years old.

    There was, though a further connection in that Lloyd Webber had recently agreed to become President of Plymouth Music Accord (PMA), a local charitable organisation with a remit to promote the appreciation and performance of music, especially among the young in the city area.

    As if to cement this association even further, one young person to benefit early on from PMA’s Young Musicians’ Platform initiative was local clarinettist and now a professional artist in his own right, Peter Cigleris, who joined Lloyd Webber and highly-acclaimed pianist and chamber musician John Lenehan for this special event.

    Having actually compiled the programme notes for this recital, there’s often nothing more irritating than hearing artists merely regurgitate, by way of a spoken preamble, what the listener is already at liberty to read in his or her own time.

    But when this consists of a succinctly-delivered anecdotal snippet, then such a brief introduction can immediately break the ice, too, even if Lloyd Webber’s reception was already of the warmest kind possible.

    Lloyd Webber went on to mention a connection between John Ireland, and the Welsh author and mystic, Arthur Machen. Ireland was apparently on London’s Charing Cross station when ‘The House of Souls’ caught his eye at a book kiosk. With his interest in long-gone races, rites and prehistory, the composer immediately identified with the stories within, both in content and style, and subsequently it became a regular complaint by him that critics could never appreciate his music, unless they had first read and understood Machen’s work.

    It is customary for solo pianists and vocalists to play from memory, but for other instrumentalists the situation is more flexible. However there was absolutely no doubt that Lloyd Webber’s decision to play Ireland’s Cello Sonata without the barrier of a music-stand, added immensely to the expressive richness of the performance, and all the more so, in linking the work’s musical content with the essential spirit of Machen’s writing. Here both player and composer were absolutely as one, in a performance that was technically unblemished, with superb dynamic control and attention to detail – string-playing of the very highest order.

    While clarinettist, Cigleris, opted to use music for his performance of Ireland’s Fantasy Sonata, never once did the physical presence of the score interfere with an equally emotionally-charged reading. Here, too, was immaculate playing, in a work of highly-concentrated ideas, couched in a richly-romantic garb, and unquestionably showing the composer’s clear love for the instrument, to him the finest of the woodwind section.

    Although the evening was primarily all about John Ireland, it gave all three artists a wonderful opportunity to combine, and there can hardly be a better vehicle for their respective instruments than Brahms’s Trio for clarinet and cello in A minor.

    From the opening bars it was obvious that there was a real empathy between each instrumentalist, which showed not only in an impeccable ensemble, but where shared musical shaping and phrasing played such an important part, throughout each of its four highly-characterised movements.

    Furthermore, it emphasised the outstanding performance throughout the evening from pianist, Lenehan, who played with immense power yet great sensitivity too, managing to coax as much as possible from the not-overly responsive small grand, with its restricted tonal palette. Lenehan was undoubtedly the evening’s unsung hero – something clearly very much appreciated by his listeners.

    Philip R Buttall

  • Ireland Cello Sonata

    20th November 1980

    WIGMORE HALL

    Lloyd Webber Recital

    Lloyd Webber/ Parkin/Fenby

    Ken Russell’s film A Sons of Summer has recently been largely responsible for bringing to wider notice the name of Eric Fenby, the young composer who spent six years as amanuensis to the , blind and paralysed Delius. But long ago Fenby’s own published account of the episode, as well as his constant devotion to Delius’s music an enthusiasm he encourages in others through his teaching, writing and performances have brought him well-earned recognition in musical circles. And last night’s recital showed that at a sprightly 74, Fenby still remains Delius’s most faithful champion.

    Together with Julian Lloyd Webber he gave a glowing account of the Cello Sonata, a work’ he claims is much misunderstood by performers. Here we were shown that its melodies can be strong and muscular as well as broad and flowing; phrases were turned tidily, shaded subtly, and an overriding continuity of thought seemed to shape the whole.

    For the rest of the programme Julian Lloyd Webber was joined by Eric Parkin, a partnership that proved equally successful. John Ireland’s Cello Sonata plumbs the depths of both instruments, and both players responded with a warmth and sensibility that confirmed a special affinity with Ireland’s style.

    Both the Ireland sonata and the youthful Frank Bridge pieces that followed were approahed in a positive way that is all too rare in this sort of music. Phrasing was broad and long-breathed but never overstretched; hushed chromatic harmonies lingered but never outstayed their welcome. These were convincing and assured performances.

    Mr Lloyd Webber remained undaunted by Britten’s third unaccompanied Cello Suite, written for Rostropovich in 1971. The haunting Russian tunes that form its basis were given in sombre, almost funereal tones, with a folklike simplicity that contrasted well with the more manical technical exploits, where Mr Lloyd Webber impressed us in a more artful way.

    Judith Nagley

  • Ireland Cello Sonata: Classicalsource.com

    September 24, 2012

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

    Ireland -Sonata in G minor for Cello and Piano

    Delius – Caprice and Elegy, Romance, Sonata for Cello and Piano

    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; though it could be argued neither has properly had the coverage in concert halls that they deserve, even this year. 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, and indeed discovered Delius’s Romance in 1976. This early composition from 1896 bears some similarity to the shorter works by Fauré for cello and piano, and here was given a sunny countenance and warm tone, its main melody lightly elusive but attractive.

    The mood was in direct contrast to the Ireland, which initially complemented the rainstorm outside, with glowering low-register cello statements and assertive interventions from Lenehan. Gradually the gloomy mood dissipated, with a whispered aside marking the intimate second theme of the first movement, its marking of ‘secreto’ perfectly observed. Lloyd Webber’s tone throughout this was probing in the mid-register, and the high notes were completely secure as the ending of each faster movement somehow negotiated its way in to G major.

    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 which was given by Lenehan in a beautiful pianissimo. Lloyd Webber’s cantabile line gave the melody a light touch, and the chromatic Elegy was soft-hearted but profound.

    Delius’s Cello Sonata is a single movement in three sections, each with long-breathed tunes that need to be followed from the outset, lest listeners feel they are cutting-in to the middle of a conversation. The sweeps of melody and wandering harmonies went well together in this performance, though the relative lack of fast music made the dynamic observations all the more telling. The beautiful falling theme that becomes the Sonata’s calling card was affectionately played, the piece building to a triumphant conclusion.

    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. Both were given with obvious affection, showing that Ireland’s melodic genius is ultimately to be found in shorter form, with his longer works reserved perhaps for more personal insights.

    Ben Hogwood

  • Ireland Cello Sonata

    John Ireland in Chelsea 14th July 2012

    Was the composer John Ireland a petit maître? True, his songs and piano pieces are the best of him, and he composed no operas or symphonies. But there is nothing small about some of his marvellous chamber music: his Cello Sonata, played on the last evening (25th June) of a mini-festival of Ireland and Co, mostly in St. Luke’s Church, Chelsea, where he was organist for twenty years, is a big-boned piece, well structured, written in 1924 in a mood of grieving and raging about the Great War, lyrical, richly chromatic and demanding virtuosity from its performers Julian Lloyd Webber and John Lenehan, and concentration from its audience. It got both. The work that followed, the second of Ireland’s Piano Trios, is the achievement of a master, not a petit maître.

    Another master work was his substantial number for piano, not quite finished but a great piece, typical Ireland, but also at times, influenced by Ravel and even looking forward to Messiaen. It is on a big scale and has been titled Ballade of London Nights but could be called a sonata in one movement. It was scaled and conquered with some fine pianism by Maria Marchant. There was also music excellently played by the East London Brass and good singing from the Addison Singers conducted by the Festival director, David Wordsworth. Music was also included in the other concerts by Ireland’s teacher, Stanford and his pupils, one of which was by Ireland’s friend, Alan Bush. A work by the latter was his unaccompanied choral piece which Bush wrote describing and lamenting Lidice a Czech village which the Germans completely erased as reprisal for the assassination of the Nazi boss, Heydrich. It was first performed in Czechoslovakia on the actual site where Lidice had been (I was a temporary member of the Workers Music Association so the sad music brought back memories).

    Many songs were sung superbly by Roderick Williams, the baritone whose singing and artistry are at their peak now. And of course he included that memorable, popular and fine song Sea Fever. It remains Ireland’s best known piece, as is Stanford’s haunting Bluebird in his oeuvre. I don’t suppose Ireland’s music will ever be as popular or as much played as the big boys of British music but there will always be some who will savour much of his oeuvre. This festival was a welcome remainder of a true maître, petit or grand.

    John Amis

  • Ireland Cello Sonata: Music Web

    John Ireland: Violin Sonata No. 1; Trio No. 2; Cello Sonata in G minor

    For recordings of the chamber music of John Ireland, they don’t come any better than this one. With an all-star lineup of British musicians, this recording joins performances of Ireland’s passionate Violin Sonata in D minor from 1909, his towering Piano Trio in E from 1917, his powerful Cello Sonata in G minor from 1923, and as a charming coda, a cello arrangement of Ireland’s setting of the carol The Holy Boy. Violinist Daniel Hope plays with stunning technique and cellist Julian Lloyd Webber plays with staggering virtuosity. But the star performer here is pianist John McCabe, who plays with utmost sympathy and understanding and absolute and complete conviction. For listeners who find the music of Holst and Vaughan Williams a bit too provincial, this disc of Ireland’s chamber music is a bracing reminder of the internationalism in English music in the last days of the British Empire. ASV’s digital sound is fresh and immediate.

    James Leonard

  • Ireland Cello Sonata

    January 2005

    Not everything on this disc is new. Many readers will already know Julian Lloyd Webber’s deeply felt version of Ireland’s marvellous Cello Sonata (1923) with John McCabe. A quarter of a century after it was made, the recording still sounds extremely well, as does these artists’ big-hearted 1987 recording of The Holy Boy in the composer’s arrangement.

    No, the real reason for investigating this ASV release are the finely prepared recordings (from December 2003) of the First Violin Sonata (1 908-09) and Second Piano Trio (1917). Lloyd Webber and McCabe are joined for the latter by Daniel Hope for a trenchant performance of this single- movement work, which owes its defiant character to the appalling events of the First World War: you can almost see the marching troops in the grim strut of the Allegro giusto some four minutes in. Like the Cello Sonata, this intensely poignant score shows him at the peak of his powers.

    The earlier Violin Sonata No 1 is less troubled — and the thematic material isn’t as distinctive as that of the Trio — but a stylish and lyrically rewarding work nonetheless: anyone who responds to the Fauré or Grieg sonatas should feel at home. Hope and McCabe do it proud. Like Lydia Mordkovitch and Ian Brown before them, theirs is an expansive, no-holds-barred conception that doesn’t toy with the music; nor do they overlook the vein of wistful intimacy that makes both Frederick Grinke’s 1945 recording with the composer and Paul Barritt’s 1995 account with Catherine Edwards so memorable. As in the Trio, the sound is generally first class, if occasionally hard- edged. I wonder if Hope and McCabe could be persuaded to give us the intoxicating Second Violin Sonata of 1917?

    Andrew Achenbach

  • Ireland Cello Sonata

    December 2004

    IRELAND Violin Sonata No.1 in D minor;

    Piano Trio No.2 in E; Cello Sonata in G minor; The Holy Boy

    Daniel Hope (violin), Julian Lloyd Webber – (cello), John McCabe (piano)

    ASV Gold GW 4009 New/Reissue

    (1979.1987) 69:23 mins

    Julian Lloyd Webber and John McCabe’s excellent accounts of the Cello Sonata and The Holy Boy date from 1979 and 1987 respectively, but the bulk of this disc is occupied by new recordings of Ireland’s First Violin Sonata and Second Piano Trio. In these they are joined by Daniel Hope, who has rapidly made a name for himself as one of the most outstanding young British violinists, and listening to his interpretation of the Sonata one sees why.

    Strictly speaking this expansive, comparatively early work, occasionally redolent of Brahms and Stanford, is nor among John Ireland’s most important utterances, for all that it won a Cobbett Prize in 1909. But Hope and McCabe make the most of its assured handling of both instruments and invest its invention with elegance as well as passionate intensity, and Hope’s firm, golden tone adds lustre to the somewhat conventional melodic idiom.

    The brooding and restless Second Trio of 1917, a compact single-movement piece much affected by thoughts of the war in the trenches, is also powerfully done – the march tune which Ireland referred to as ‘the boys going over the top’ has a dogged nobility rather than the jauntiness which can ruin its effect. Lloyd Webber’s eloquent and mercurial playing in the Cello Sonata, a quintessential Ireland piece in its mingling of playfulness and elegy, make this a most satisfying release.

    Calum MacDonald

    PERFORMANCE *****

    SOUND (Sonata,Trio) *****

    (The rest) ****