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Category: Reviews

  • Sullivan Cello Concerto

    The Los Angeles Daily News March 13th 1987

    Sullivan’s only concerto a classic

    SULLIVAN: CELLO CONCERTO IN D

    HERBERT: CELLO CONCERTO NO. 2

    ELGAR: ROMANCE

    Julian Lloyd Webber, Sir Charles Mackerras, London Symphony Orchestra.

    Our rating: B

    Sir Arthur Sullivan (of Gilbert and) wrote but one concerto, but we’ve had to wait until now to hear a recording of it (Angel CDC 47622, CD). And even this performance hinges on a lucky break that the man who last conducted it (Mackerras in 1953) had a memory so photographic, he was able to reconstruct the orchestral parts that were destroyed in a 1964 fire.

    It’s a delightful find, too, particularly the bucolic third movement with its lengthy, effortlessly flowing outbreaks of perpetual motion for the cellist. It might not be top-drawer Sullivan, with only the faintest pre-echoes of the Gilbert and Sullivan comic operas, but it could easily carve out a place in the too-small cello repertory – and Webber plays it with warmth and affection.

    Webber – whose brother Andrew is the massively popular musicals composer, also essays a cello transcription of Elgar’s sentimental but pleasant “Romance” that lay unknown until 1985, as well as the sometimes brooding, conventionally Romantic but not-too-sweet concerto by Victor Herbert. The whole CD is quite a programming coup; two attractive cello concertos by composers whom almost everyone thought were exclusively welded to the stage.

    RICHARD S. GINELL

  • 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

  • Romantic Cello Concertos

    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

    Romantic Cello Concertos CDThis 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

  • 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