Search Tool

1) Search in…

2) Search for…

Specified search details…

No search criteria specified

List content will go here

Search Tool

1) Search in…

2) Search for…

Specified search details…

No search criteria specified

List content will go here

Category: Reviews

  • Britten Third Suite for Cello

    Daily Telegraph 15th August 1979

    Wigmore Hall

    Lloyd Webber/Parkin

    IN THE second programme of the John Ireland centenary festival the composer was represented last night by his cello Sonata in G major, a work which employs strong themes and integrates them with great skill.

    Julian Lloyd Webber, who had been heard in the Ravel Piano Trio at the opening concert, was well equipped to carry out a full-scale interpretation and his pianist partner Eric Parkin was equally persuasive with his deft and mercurial playing.

    The programme was designed to link Ireland with his teacher Stanford and pupil Britten. Stanford, who studied in Germany and was born only 19 years after Brahms, was represented by his Second cello Sonata in D minor, greatly influenced by Brahms and a highly polished, eloquent work to which both players brought a sureness and grandeur.

    On his own Mr Webber played Britten’s unaccompanied Third Suite in C with a great deal of brilliance in the Fantastico and Presto, a spacious dimension in the final Passacaglio and a smoothness of execution which marks him as one of the most gifted young artists.

    DAWM

  • Brahms Sonatas for cello and piano

    Guardian 1978

    St Johns Concert – Brahms E minor Sonata

    FEW CELLISTS of whatever age or celebrity produce such consistently true and opulent sounds as Julian Lloyd Webber. Only recently it was a misery to find a crude amplification system getting in the way of his natural sound when at the Festival Hall he played his brother’s lively set of Variations, but here at St John’s Smith Square, in the kindest of acoustics for the cello, we heard from him a display of velvet textures in every sonic colour imaginable.

    The first half brought purposefulness in the Brahms E minor Cello sonata, Opus 38, but then with Simon Nicholls as his agile but discreet piano partner he went on to a set of romantic pieces, some inconsequential, some langorous.

    The one frustration was that Rachmaninov’s Great Cello Sonata was represented only by the central slow movement, and that is a work which I suspect suits Lloyd-Webber’s ripely romantic style even more than the Brahms.

    Above all Lloyd Webber is a cellist with an ability to persuade, and so it was not only in warhorse pieces like Saint-Saens’s ever-buoyant Swan but also in Mendelssohn’s late Song Without Words for cello and the stunning Elfin Dance of David Popper, which perfectly suited the vein of naughtiness which regularly leavens the playing of a potentially major artist. Edward Greenfield

  • Britten Cello Sonata: Daily Telegraph

    The Daily Telegraph 24th November 1975

    Vivid reactions to Britten cello works

    In the Cello Sonata, where he was joined by Yitkin Seow at the piano, his tone was robust and well varied, though always tending to darker hues. Both artists were best amid the slightly outlandish excitements of the “Moto Perpetuo”.

    Britten’s compositional virtuosity is especially apparent in the two unaccompanied Suites, with their fugues and diverse character pieces. Mr. Webber’s own virtuosity was very apparent in both works and he coped admirably with such problems as the extreme dynamic contrasts of No.2’s Declamato while showing a strong affinity with the brooding lyricism of the Lamento in No.1.

    M.H.

  • Beethoven Sonata Reviews

    Financial Times 10th June 1974

    Beethoven Cello Sonata in A major

    ‘…with Clifford Benson as his pianist, Mr Lloyd Webber played Beethoven’s A Major sonata with fluent ease, strong and even tone, and remarkable certainty in those high passages where more experienced players make the listener wince.’

    Ronald Crighton

  • Beethoven Sonata Reviews

    Daily Telegraph 13th March 1973

    Beethoven Cello Sonata in G minor

    WIGMORE HALL

    Sharing this ISM concert was the cellist Julian Lloyd Webber with his partner at the piano, Clifford Benson. The slow introduction to Beethoven’s Sonata in G minor had a spontaneous quality which was owed to care taken for exact dynamics. Both players command big tones and have excellent rhythm. An intensely poetic performance of the Delius Sonata showed the completeness of their art. D. A. W. M.

  • Beethoven Sonata Reviews: Daily Telegraph

    The Daily Telegraph 15th December 1971

    London Debut Exceptional Talent! – Wigmore Hall Recital December 7th

    An exceptional talent, the 20-year-old cellist Julian Lloyd Webber, made his first Wigmore Hall sonata recital last night a very distinguished affair.

    An equally gifted and now well-established musician, Clifford Benson, was his partner at the piano. It was evident that their close partnership had been achieved in many collaborations, which may explain the risk they took in opening with the Vivaldi Sonata No. 5.

    The rich adagio and the atheletic fugue of Beethoven’s Sonata in D major were marvellously integrated and balanced.

    An expansive account of the Delius Sonata brought out the opulence of the instrument. DAWM