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Category: Reviews

  • Romantic Cello Concertos

    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

  • Romantic Cello Concertos

    The Scotsman November 2009

    Romantic Cello Concertos CD

    JULIAN LLOYD WEBBER: ROMANTIC CELLO CONCERTOS ****

    Romantic Cello Concertos CDJOAQUIN Rodrigo is perhaps best known for his popular Concerto de Aranjuez for guitar, but in the 1980s when he was in his eighties he wrote a concerto for cellist Julian Lloyd Webber that is every bit as exotic and tuneful. Accordingly, it fits well with the title of Lloyd Webber’s latest disc, Romantic Cello Concertos, and sits easily with the lush and slithering chromaticism of Delius’s concerto and the hot-blooded romanticism of Lalo’s.

    These are a repackaging of earlier separate releases by Lloyd Webber, and so feature different orchestras and conductors. With Vernon Handley and the Philharmonia, he digs deep into the passionate soul of the Delius. With Jesus Lopez-Cobos and the London Philharmonic, the Rodrigo is by far the more perfect and invigorating performance.

  • Romantic Cello Concertos

    Yorkshire Post 13th November 2009

    Romantic Cello Concertos CD

    JULIAN LLOYD WEBBER: ROMANTIC CELLO CONCERTOS ****

    Romantic Cello Concertos CDOne 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 1980’s sound and a gift at this price.

    David Denton

  • Richard Strauss Don Quixote

    Liverpool Post 20th March 1974

    Strauss Don Quixote

    Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra/Sir Charles Groves

    In the absence of the unfortunately still indisposed Oliver Vella, the cello role of the romantic Knight was excellently played by the 23 year old Julian Lloyd Webber with an especially eloquent interpretation of the long vigil section.

    Neil Barkla

  • Richard Strauss Don Quixote

    Glasgow Herald 25th March 1974

    Julian Lloyd Webber: Strauss Don Quixote

    “There was plenty to admire in the Glasgow performance. The solo, cello part was to have been played by Oliver Velia, the leader of the orchestra s section, but because he is ill his place was taken by Julian Lloyd Webber, who although still in his early 20s already enjoys a considerable reputation.

    It was easy to understand why. Nothing about his playing or interpretation suggested he began to study this work only three weeks ago. The fact that he played it from memory is not important. What impressed was his eloquence, especially in the fifth variation, depicting the Knight s nocturnal vigil, and in the Epilogue.

    Also deserving of the highest praise were the solo viola contributions of Colin Kitching. I cannot remember hearing this part, representing Sancho Panza, better played, while Alan Traverse, the orchestra’s leader, thoroughly distinguished himself in the violin solos.”

  • Shostakovich Cello Sonata

    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 rcital de musique de notre temps, faisant se rencontrer Chostakoviich et Britien, avant qu’une dernire amiti ne les lie dans la vie comme dans leur musique. Julian Lloyd Webber traite avec une gale splendeur leurs deux sonates, pourtant distantes de plus d’un quart de sicle. Ce traitement donne un nouvel clat l’Opus 65 de Britten. John McCabe, sans faire oublier le compositeur au piano avec Rostropovitch, s’impose dans le dialogue, tant t de-bussyste, tant t pr-classique de cette suite en cinq danses. Lloyd Webber, sans chercher retrouver le lyrisme enjleur de Slava, joue le jeu du Dia-logo original, accentue l’hispanisme stylis du Scherzo-pizvcalo, se souvient de Delius dans l’Elegie; il installe une tension dramatique post-schubenienne, qui donne une relle consistance la Marcia, dans sa dmarche proche des Pas dans la neige debussystes, ainsi qu’aux abrupts changements de climat du Moto perpetua final. Ce mme traitement convient un peu moins bien la Sonaie trs classique de forme de Chostakoviich. Le droutant Allegro initial exige une grande fluidit de phras tout en tant marqu de contrastes sous-jacents, la manire de l’Opus 65 de Chopin.

    PIERRE-E. BARBIER

    TECHNIQUE C.D. : 6

    Image sombre, manquant de brilliant

  • Shostakovich Cello Sonata

    The Observer June 1990

    “This is a very strong disc indeed. With gritty piano playing from John McCabe, Lloyd Webber explores the early, pre-Rostropovich cello writing of Shostakovich and Prokofiev (whose Ballade is splendidly intense), and adds the Britten Sonata in C of 1961. The cello playing is bold and sustained.”

    Nicholas Kenyon

  • Shostakovich Cello Concerto no1

    Daily Telegraph 30th May 1981

    Shostakovich Cello Concerto review

    Shostakovich Cello Concerto/Royal Philharmonic/Yuri Termikanov

    “His intuitive yet deeply contemplative sympathy with the work rang out in the slow movement.”

    Peter Stadlen

  • Shostakovich Cello Concerto no1

    Repertoire August 1992

    NikolaI MIASKOVSKI et CHOSTAKOVITCH

    Adagio du ruisseau limpide. – TCHAIKOVSKI Variations rococo, Nocturne en r mineur

    Julian Lloyd Webber (violoncelle)

    Orchestre Symphonique de Londres

    Dir. Maxime Chostakovitch

    Sous le titre d oeuvres reprsentatives du post-romantisme acadmique russe, l excellent livret de P.E. Barbier nous dfinit le cheminement cratif et les points communs de ces quatre opus. Le Concerto dc Miaskovski (auteur entre autres de 27 Symphonies et de 9 Sonates publies que l’on coutera avec profit dans l’intgrale McLachlan chez Olympia) est une pure merveille d criture lisztienne et schuman-nienne. Le violoncelle est trait comme la voix humaine et l’orchestration trs riche cre une notion et attige d espace qui permet au ta lent trs improvisateur de Webber de s’exprimer.

    Avec l Adagio du ruisseau limpide de Chostakovitch. on tient la premire occidentale de la quatrime partie (Adagio des cinq tableaux de cette comdie-ballet e, chorgraphie des annes 1929/1934. Avec la mise l’index de l opra Lady Mac- bath de Chostakovitch et par l- mme du dbut de la dictature musicale de l re nouvelle stalinienne, l’auteur du Net avait choisi un thme propre mettre en avant l’ironie d’une action se situant entre Kholkoziens dans une ferme collective Cuba… L Adagio fait partie de la suite d orchestre. Voyons-y un sublime pastiche d’un ballet tchakovskien (cantilne du violoncelle avec accompagnement de harpe) o, subi tement, merge l’harmonie et la rythmique de la future Leningrad. Certes plus concertantes et moins originales, les Variations rococo et le Nocturne (tir d’une des nombreuses transcriptions du numro 4 de l’opus 19 pour piano seul sont joups avec une grande sobrit par Webber qui. vite toute surcharge ces pages surannees concluant intelligemment cc rcital bien ficel.

    Stphane Friderich

  • Shostakovich Cello Concerto no1

    Trouw 8th December 1993

    JULIAN LLOYD WEBBER’S DEBUT AT THE CONCERTGEBOUW AMSTERDAM

    Monday 6th December 1993 – Shostakovich Cello Concerto

    LLOYD WEBBER TASTES THE INTENSE MELANCHOLY OF SHOSTAKOVICH

    I get goose-flesh from the motif with which Dmitri Shostakovich starts his first Cello Concerto. It sounds as if someone is whistling in the dark, afraid but nevertheless brave.

    On Monday night in the Amsterdam Concertgebouw cellist Julian Lloyd Webber presented that motif in a totally natural way; he also highlighted the undertone of melancholy that is so present in this concerto. The atmosphere of desolation showed itself most clearly in the long cadenza which forms the third movement of four movements.

    I was afraid that the rather bronchial audience would disturb that delicate solo-reverie on the strings. But the intensity that Lloyd Webber gave in his presentation forced everyone into breathless attention.

    That cadenza is placed between orchestral sections which have a quasi-cheerful and sometimes chaotic atmosphere: the cellist is either leading or being dragged along; the duets are beautiful, especially those with the hornplayer. His signals sounded loud and dramatic from the far back of the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra, but they also sounded comical, because the flexible cello gives the lumbering horn a lot to do. Fortunately conductor Vassili Sinaiski was able to count on his alert musicians.