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Category: Reviews

  • Delius Cello Sonata

    20th November 1980

    Julian Lloyd Webber/ Delius

    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 pharsing 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 Deblius 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

  • Delius Cello Sonata

    classicalsource.com – March 2013

    Barnes Music Festival – William Lloyd Webber, Delius & John Ireland – Artists include Verter Trio, Julian Lloyd Webber & Min-Jin Kym

    The Barnes Music Festival prospectus advertised this concert as being “an enchanting programme of f amiliar classics alongside lesser known works including Delius’s Cello Concerto (sic)…”, and it indicated that works by Purcell and Bax would also be played. But somewhere along the line the event turned into a celebration to mark the centenary of William Lloyd Webber, father of Julian, whose compositions dominated the evening.

    William Lloyd Webber’s Fantasy Trio, written in 1936, was a good indicator of the tone of things to come. The work is a skilfully constructed piece in one movement, recognisably in the English style of the period that will be familiar to those who know Ireland, Bax or the younger Frank Bridge. The quality of invention is high enough to keep one’s attention and the Verter Trio gave a thoroughly committed performance. Three piano pieces then fell pleasantly on the ear, and after being interviewed interestingly about his father by Daniel Turner, Julian Lloyd Webber displayed his Stradivarius cello’s beautiful tone in two more miniatures by WLW.

    Rebeca Omodia, a sympathetic accompanist, then entered more into the picture with Delius’s Cello Sonata. Julian Lloyd Webber is the leading exponent of this work, and has recorded it at least twice, once with the composer’s associate and amanuensis Eric Fenby. He gave a passionate, highly communicative performance.

    After the interval, Omodia showed her considerable skills in sympathetic, neatly turned accounts of further W. Lloyd Webber pieces, and was then joined by the husband-and-wife cello-duo in three arrangements. Jiaxin was by no means at a disadvantage compared with her partner, and is clearly a highly skilled performer. (They have recorded this and similar repertoire for Naxos, on 8.57325.) Min-Jin Kym, who hit the headlines four years ago when her Stradivarius was stolen from her in a Euston-station cafe and then subsequently found if only recently, now uses another instrument by the same maker. With Daniel Turner, she played W. Lloyd Webber’s Benedictus.

    In the final work, John Ireland’s Second Piano Trio, the Verter musicians played with great devotion and responded well to both the work’s darker elements and its virtuosic qualities. There were times when it was thought that music such as this could only be realised satisfactorily by native-born artists, and it was heartening to experience such a finely played and sympathetic performance by an Israeli pianist, a South-Korean violinist and a Chinese cellist.

    Alan Sanders

  • Delius Cello Sonata

    20th November 1980

    Julian Lloyd Webber plays Delius

    Julian Lloyd Webber

    Eric Parkin

    Eric Fenby

    Lloyd Webber Recital

    IT is some time since London has had an opportunity to hear a programme of works for cello and piano by four of our most distinguished composers, performed with such authenticity and technical perfection as was the case at Wigmore Hall last night.

    In Ireland’s Sonata in G minor (1923) Julian Lloyd Webber and Eric Parkin displayed instrumental mastery in projecting the strong and eloquent themes. A wonderful effect was achieved by Mr Parkin’s sustained and satisfying line in the haunting principal theme of the slow movement following on from Mr Lloyd Webber’s incisive opening. This finale had an unusual strength, drive and attack from both players.

    A similar sense of purpose marked their handling of the long crescendo in Bridge’s Elegie (1911) and in his arresting Scherzetto (c. 1902), recently discovered at the Royal College of Music and a first London performance. Delius’s rarely heard Sonata. (1916) brought Eric Fenby on to the platform. This imaginative pianist, who was the composer’s amanuensis from 1928 until his death, provided a close yet independent partnership with Mr Lloyd Webber’s rich tone. On his own in Britten’s Suite, Mr Lloyd Webber, who incidentally performed the very testing programme without music, showed how mature his art has become.

    D.A.W.M.

  • Delius Cello Sonata

    January 2013

    Reissues – ‘The Delius Collection’ – the recordings by Eric Fenby

    ‘The Cello Sonata, always a difficult work to interpret and one fraught with the dangers of monotony, is brought to life beautifully by Julian Lloyd Webber’s careful shades and graded phrases.’

    Jeremy Dibble

  • Delius Cello Sonata

    20th November 1980

    Julian Lloyd Webber plays Delius

    WIGMORE HALL

    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

  • Delius 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

  • Delius Cello Sonata

    11th November 1980

    Julian Lloyd Webber plays Britten’s Cello Suite No 3

    WIGMORE HALL

    Edward Greenfield

    NO MORE dedicated advocate of English cello music has emerged in recent years than Julian Lloyd-Webber, and it was good to find him attracting a large audience for what a few years ago might have seemed a very specialised programme of Ireland, Delius, Bridge and Britten.

    True, it was Britten’s Third Cello Suite for solo cello which at the end of the pro¬gramme conveyed a degree of concentration in the argu¬ment largely missing till then. One might have expected that in his third essay in this inevitably restricted form Britten’s inspiration would have contracted, but Lloyd-Webber if anything more than the dedicatee, Rostropovich, proves the opposite with eight movements, jewelled in their compression, leading to the culminating passacaglia and epilogue.

    As a splendid start to the programme came the G minor Cello Sonata of John Ireland with Eric Parkin, long dedicated to the music of this composer, matching Lloyd Webber in responding to the taut, neurasthenic side of the composer as well as the relaxed warmth of the all-too-brief central slow movement.

    For Delius’s elusive Cello Sonata the doyen of Delians, to whose toils we actually owe the last works, Eric Fenby, added his unique authority. Alas, unlike the Double Concerto written about the same time, it is a work which meanders even in a performance as persuasive as this.

  • Delius Cello Sonata

    Cello sonata (in one movement); 2 Pieces for

    cello and piano; Romance; Hassan: Serenade.

    (N) Ph. Dig. 454 458-2 [id]. Julian Lloyd

    Webber, Bengt Forsberg — GRIEG: Cello sonata.***

    Julian Lloyd Webber offers a most attractive coupling of the complete cello and piano music of both Delius and Grieg, composers closely linked both in musical style and as personal friends. Since he last recorded the Delius Cello sonata (for Unicorn in 1981) Lloyd Webber has refined and deepened his reading, making it tauter than before. He is just as warmly sympathetic in the shorter pieces.

  • Delius Cello Sonata

    June 1976

    “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.”

  • Delius Cello Sonata

    June 1998

    Delius and Grieg cello music

    DELIUS Cello Sonata; Two Pieces; Serenade from Hassan; Romance

    GRIEG Cello Sonata in A minor, Intermezzo

    Julian Lloyd Webber (cello),Bengt Forsberg (piano)

    Philips 454 458-2

    ‘When I first heard Grieg,’ Delius wrote, ‘it was if a breath of mountain air had come to me.’ How true are those words in this disc, as we move from the hot-house environment of his music to the limpid beauty of Grieg’s Intermezzo and Sonata. They are a world apart, a fact made all the more obvious by Julian Lloyd Webber’s excellent performances.

    The Delius Sonata (1916) is a score of intense beauty conceived as a single uninterrupted arch, and Lloyd Webber invests the music with an abundant spectrum of tone colour. Maybe his use of portamentos almost errs on the generous, yet one feels his love and affection for Delius, the soaring lines of the Caprice, the first of the Two Pieces, being a moment of erotic radiance.

    For the Grieg, Lloyd Webber totally changes his approach and tone quality, the gentle lyricism of the Intermezzo perfectly captured. His view of the sonata is more introverted than normal, with rather muted moments of drama. It is a view I enjoyed, and in Bengt Forsberg Lloyd Webber has a partner who ideally complements his interpretations.

    DAVID DENTON