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Category: Reviews

  • Rachmaninov Cello Sonata

    The Washington Post 18th January 1994

    Julian Lloyd Webber

    With more than 30 recordings to his credit, cellist Julian Lloyd Webber need never fear about living in his brother Andrew’s shadow. And while concert artists rarely win mass acclaim – and of the few that do, still fewer are cellists – Julian Lloyd Webber’s star shines brightly in that small constellation of the deserving few.

    Saturday night’s performance at the Jewish Community Center in Rockville showed why this should be so. Lloyd Webber brought a fine touch and a keen intellect to all that he and pianist John Lenehan played. Architecture was always in place, and each piece on this most challenging program conveyed a sense of journey, of departure and arrival.

    The sweetest moments came in the most delicate exchanges – in Bach’s “Ich stehe mit einem Fuss im Grabe”, the Prologue to the Debussy Sonata, and, not surprisingly, in the gentle unfolding of Faure’s “Elegie”. All were crafted with the greatest of care – down to the triple-piano markings – and dispatched with exact intonation.

    Lloyd Webber and Lenehan evinced the skills and vision to make the music memorable even when in the case of the Rachmaninov Sonata and the Frank Bridge encore, neglect might have consigned them to a different fate.

    -Mark Carrington

  • Rachmaninov Cello Sonata

    The Independent 19th December 1994

    CLASSICAL MUSIC

    Julian Lloyd Webber

    Wigmore Hall, London

    There were no frills on offer for Julian Lloyd Webber on Thursday at the Wigmore Hall. No record signings or glossy promo packs. Just an evening of simple, honest music-making, like he always said it should be.

    Said it on this page, in fact, over a week ago, in an interview that raised expectations about his style of playing that could only be justified in the act. His programme, with French and Russian classics, new works and old novelties, suggested no lack of ideas. Even so, it was the artist in action who proved his point that playing the cello remains his principal devotion.

    He began with Britten’s Sonata in C; a smart choice, for in its spiderery plucked strings and side-glancing melodies he could project the spirit of his musicianship with little chance of going over the top. Elusiveness seems written into the very notes of this piece, and Lloyd Webber came nearest to direct statement in the Elegia, keening cello against acrid, bitonal chords from the pianist John Lenehan. Yet neither here nor in Debussy’s late Sonata were the players working at full pressure, despite a noble view of the Prologue and an encounter with the Serenade that caught the deft instability of its nervous pantomime.

    Instead, these works gave a preview of the full picture to come: a tonal range that stretched from the lustrous alto timbre of an antique viola to a crisp, succulent bass, and a rhythmic acumen willingly shared between the two players.

    The reward came after the interval, in a faultless reading of Rachmaninov’s testing Cello Sonata. After the bold adventure of its opening bars, the second theme, proposed by Lenehan and propelled by Lloyd Webber through a flight of echoes and asides, stood for the fine coordination of the whole. Gruff tremolos in the scherzo and a fine tune in the slow movement yielded to a finale that relaxed just enough to give the lyrical moments room to breath: it drew lively applause.

    For a striking contrast, there was also the premiere of Dream Sequence, Richard Rodney Bennett’s medley of Broadway themes about childhood. And who else but the incomparable Bennett could turn a simple exercise into such art?

    His chords had an easy showtime magic; at a push you could work them out at the piano; but never quite the chords he chose, and in such exquisite order. Lloyd Webber’s rapt pianissimo was an asset both here and in the plainsong world of another premiere, James MacMillan’s Kiss on Wood; bright piano chords like flashes of lightning; then silence; then a winding chant for cello, stretched out on the rack of more silence to end on a prie-dieu of comforting harmonies. MacMillan’s vision of the cross was serene yet questioning and, like the Bennett, a significant plus for the cello repertoire.

    A bouquet of salon music rounded off the evening: Cyril Scott’s Pastoral and Reel and Lullaby and Frank Bridge’s scherzo. These are composers who are polished and passionate. yet often undervalued. A bit like Lloyd Webber? No longer, on the evidence of this wholesome plum-pudding of a concert.

    Nicholas Williams

  • Rachmaninov Cello Sonata

    Bachtrack.com 19th March 2012

    Julian Lloyd Webber Pays Tribute to Cello Greats in Cornwall

    Julian Lloyd Webber with Pam Chowhan

    Hall for Cornwall, Truro

    It is inevitable that one of the most beloved of orchestral instruments, the cello, will entice a diverse crowd of enthusiastic concertgoers and that even in the midst of a recession, there prevails an inherent desire to depart from the self now and then for a ritualistic celebration of great music. It is no surprise, then, that Truro’s Hall for Cornwall warmly welcomed an evening with cellist Julian Lloyd Webber and pianist Pam Chowhan, performing works by Bach, Bridge, Britten, Faur, Delius, Rachmaninov, Saint-Sans, Piazzolla, and William Lloyd Webber.

    Though such an eclectic programme might appear to be jarring at first, the selection of repertoire was an apt decision on Lloyd Webber’s part, demonstrating his virtuosity both technically and lyrically. A lush Adagio from Bach’s Cantata no. 156 awakened the evening with its gentle, picturesque scenery, exuding an alluring warmth and elegance. At its heel followed Frank Bridge’s lively Scherzetto, a juxtaposition which paid off by virtue of the Bach-like capriciousness of Bridge’s piece. These works seemed best suited to Lloyd Webber’s musicianship, who exhibited a pristine clarity, conscientiously noting the subtle eccentricities of the pieces without exaggeration. Equally prodigious, Chowhan flowed seamlessly across the scope of her instrument, providing a solid accompaniment and filling in the acoustics nicely.

    The programme next ventured into the distinctly more contemporary Scherzo from Britten’s Cello Sonata in C, which was reminiscent of Shostakovich and Bartak with its macabre intensity. This was answered by the much-anticipated lgie by Faur, whose melancholy seemed slightly understated by Lloyd Webber; as the piano accompaniment trod heavier, the deeper tones of the cello became lost in the chasm of sound and that great, cavernous resonance that all cello lovers devour was restricted by the acoustics of the venue. Where the architecture of the piece demanded a passionate rawness from the soloist, the slight restraint and the dominant piano inhibited the poetic performance, and one sensed a somewhat repressed musicality.

    It was not until Rachmaninov’s Cello Sonata in G minor that Lloyd Webber unleashed a brooding temperament, with his cello straining above the piano part’s vigorous flashes across the keyboard. Chowhan was blazing in her performance, and for the first time during the course of the concert, Lloyd Webber’s gestures were dramatically wrought as the two musicians unravelled a torrent of Romanticist sentiment that echoed the Russian’s piano concertos.

    In this sense, the execution of the sonata was a revelatory climax of the concert, as its brilliance overshadowed the previous works. Even throughout the performance of Delius’ Cello Sonata earlier in the programme (celebrating his 150th anniversary), the distinction between movements and their ideas were not as dynamically rendered as they were here; Lloyd Webber embraced the full scale of metaphysical outpouring in the Rachmaninov, to great effect.

    Yet while some critics may argue that the poignancy of the repertoire would have been intensified by a more exposed and exuberant playing style, it was the simplicity and humility with which Lloyd Webber expressed himself which made the concert experience more tangible to the listener. Humanizing the works of the composers by prefacing each piece with a personal anecdote, the cellist avoided the elitism of high art and this made each musical phrase more resonant. His discussion of father William Lloyd Webber’s haunting Nocturne was a touching tribute, and his performance of it was peaceful and meditative. As a homage to the more popular cello canon, Saint-Sans’ The Swan and Piazzolla’s seductive Oblivion met with a communal rapport from the audience, completing an interesting cycle of music which spanned a few hundred years.

    If Lloyd Webber strove to achieve in his audience a greater reverence for the legacy of music, then his standing ovation proved such an aspiration successful. The richness of the programme’s variety and the craftsmanship which the performers intuitively showcased (often functioning in a more egalitarian nature than that of soloist with accompaniment) ensured a respectful homage to some marvellous yet often neglected works.

    Lucy Armstrong

  • Prokofiev Sinfonia Concertante

    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

  • Prokofiev Sinfonia Concertante

    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 Chostakovitch et Britten, 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 enj leur de Slava, joue le jeu du Dia-logo original, accentue l’hispanisme stylis du Scherzo-pizvcato, 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 perpétua final. Ce mme traitement convient un peu moins bien la Sonaie trs classique de forme de Chostakovitch. Le droutant Allegro initial exige une grande fluidit de phrasing 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

  • Prokofiev Sinfonia Concertante

    The Financial Times 15th December 1971

    SERGE PROKOFIEV

    “Bliss was paired with his contemporary, Prokofiev. The long, not very coherent, but often tuneful and colourful Sinfonia Concertante for cello and orchestra was given a remarkable performance by Julian Lloyd Webber, who had the work by heart.”

    Ronald Crighton

  • Prokofiev Peter and the Wolf

    The Scotsman 16th April 2009

    Edinburgh Youth Orchestra **** St Mary’s Metropolitan Cathedral

    By SUSAN NICKALLS

    THE last of the Edinburgh Youth Orchestra’s Spring concerts drew a capacity audience to hear a varied and ambitious programme which highlighted the considerable abilities of these young musicians.

    Close to 100 players delivered a powerful and well-paced performance of Stravinsky’s The Firebird: Ballet Suite. At full-strength the EYO are a force to be reckoned with and it was only in some of the more exposed areas that the occasional weakness was to be found.

    In Khachaturian’s Adagio from Spartacus, the laid-back rhythms often came adrift although the string sound was solid throughout. Prokofiev’s musical tale for children, Peter and the Wolf, is popular with audiences of all ages, and the EYO, with narrator Julian Lloyd Webber, gave an animated and often humorous performance. The soloists, who all played superbly, wore hats to indicate their particular character, with conductor En Sao entering into the spirit of things by wearing a wolf hat.

    Lloyd Webber then took up his cello to play David Horne’s rather lightweight arrangement of Peter Maxwell Davies’s piano interlude Farewell to Stromness for cello and string orchestra. The lilting melody suited the mellifluous tones of Lloyd Webber’s cello, which were spun like gold in the bright acoustics, but this was often undermined by an accompaniment which tended to flatten rather than lift the tune.

  • Prokofiev Peter and the Wolf

    The Dundee Courier 14th April 2009

    Perth Concert

    Youth Orchestra in fine form

    By even the most exalted standards the performance by the Edinburgh Youth Orchestra in Perth Concert Hall yesterday was first class in all departments.

    They began with the adagio from Khachaturian’s ballet Spartacus. Immediately, the confidence of the violins struck one, then the superb sound of the oboe, clarinet and flute solos. Working with these, conductor En Shao whipped up a tremendous, emotional, colourful climax.

    Next came Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf with Julian Lloyd Webber as narrator. As a nice touch the winds who represent the characters had masks on top of their heads: bird, duck, cat, wolf as one goes down the score. The piece was finely played and characterised. En Shao got in on the act when the wolf was captured by the tail, shaking the tails of his white tie and tails at Julian Lloyd Webber. It delighted the children in the audience, including the three in front of me who conducted and danced in their seats.

    Back in his day job, as Julian Lloyd Webber quipped, he played a beautiful arrangement by David Horne for solo cello and strings of Sir Peter Maxwell Davies’s piano piece Farewell to Stromness. It was an effective and affecting piece, evoking such applause from the audience that he responded with an encore: the serenata from Britten’s First Cello Suite.

  • Miaskovsky Cello Concerto

    LE DEVOIR 2Oth May 1992

    Maskovski Cello Concerto

    Joindre l’utile l’agrable

    Concerto pour violoncelle op.66; Chostakovitch, Le ruisseau limpide:

    Tchaikovski, Variations sur un thme rococo op.33 (version originale),

    Nocturne en r mineur Philips

    English Chamber Orchestra. Dir. Yan-Pascal Tortelier ; Saint-Saens,Concerto pour violoncelle op.33, Allegro appassionato op,43; Faur,lgie op.24; D’Indy, Lied op.19;

    Honegger, Concerto pour violoncelle. Philips 432 084-2.

    Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Dir.

    Yehudi Menuhin: Elgar, Concerto pour violoncelle op.85. Variations sur un thme original Enigma op.36.

    TUDIANT, je rvais de pouvoir un jour faire des disques. Mais comment tre certain d’y parvenir, les interprtes tant infiniment plus nombreux que, les grands diteurs discographiques pour les enregistrer. Par ailleurs, l ge de 15 ans, vous ne savez pas comment votre jeu va voluer. Allez-vous rsister aux pressions de toutes sortes? II y a tant de facteurs prvoir.

    40 ans, Julian Lloyd Webber s’est prsent taill une place au..soleil parmi les meilleurs violoncellistes anglais de sa gnration et cela, sans lien direct avec la florissante carrire pop de son frre an Andrew (l’auteur du Fantme de l’opra). Il affirme ne lui devoir rien, ni ses disques (il en a signs 10 chez Philips), ni son superbe Stradivarius, acquis en 1983 dans un encan et qu’U a pay difficilement, prcise-t-ii, avec un emprunt de la banque.

    Est-elle bonne ou mauvaise, cette relation que certains s’empressent d tablir entre lui et son an? D’abord indcis, il finit par avouer qu’elle s’avère plutt ngative en ce qu’elle le prive du bnfice du doute aux yeux de nombreux mlomanes. Diffrent, il prtend l’tre et pouvoir le prouver.

    Aujourd’hui, Julian partage ses efforts entre le concert et l’enregistrement en essayant de rendre ,l’un et l’autre complmentaires. Il croit que le second devrait tre le reflet fidle du premier… une photographie, en quelque sorte. Aussi voit-il avec un vif intrt la possibilit de graver un CD partir d’un concert en public. Pour diminuer les risques, on pour- i-ait faire un montage en utilisant deux ou trois excutions de la mme pice.

    Pour le moment Cependant, il dplore que l’abus du montage ait eu pour effet de striliser un trop grand nombre de disques acquise de cette manire la perfection engendre des lectures qui se ressemblent toutes et qui ont hlas perdu l’originalit et la fraicheur des 78 tours d’autrefois, ceux de Pablo Casals ou de sa compatriote Beatrice Harrison qu’il semble admirer particulirement.

    Il souhaite laisser un hritage la postrit. Nous pouvons donner autant de concerts que possible clans une vie, au bout du compte, il n’eii restera rien. Alors que les enregistrements, comme les uvres du compositeur, nous survivront.

    A certains gards, cette pense lui para t troublante. Regardez le nombre incroyable de versions que l’on continue de publier des mmes oeuvres. Devant ce constat, il a tent une approche, diffrente dans la conception d’un disque. Prenons le Concerto d’Elgar, par exemple. Je voulais le faire avec Menuhin qui dj enregistr le concerto de violon en 1932 avec le compositeur au pupitre (dit chez EMI, CDII 7 69786- 2) — ce lien m’a sembl dune importance toute particulire.

    Quant au reste du programme, j’avais pens que la Srnude pour coi-des op.20 et l’Introduction et allegro pour cordes op.47 auraient fait le complment tout dsign; cependant Menuhin tenait enregistrer le Variations enigma. Son choix prvalu en dpit mme de la rticence de Philips qui venait de l’inscrire son catalogue avec Andr Previn la tte du mme Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (Philips 416 813-2). Je me rendis son dsir car il me sembla que l’ide tait encore mei1leire puisqu’il s’agissait d’une oeuvr, importante et qu’ayant bien connu Elgar, Yehudi avait l quelque chose nous lguer. Par ailleurs, je ne, li soucie pas d’tre la seule vedette d’un disque quand le but premier est de trouver la meilleure faon de servir la musique d’abord.

    Le disque russe Tchaikovski/Miaskovski/Chostakovitch emprunte la mme dmarche. li fut us avec Maxime Chostakovitch (l le fils de Dimitri), ce qui, selon Ll’9d Webber, en garantit l’authenticite. C’est d’ailleurs la partition de Nikolai Miaskovki qui lui rvla les qualits exceptionnelles d’un chef malheureusement sous-estim.

    Rappelons que Miaskovski fut l’auteur de 27 Symphonies; il acheva sort unique Concerto pour violoncelle en 1944 (six ans avant sa mort) l’intention du violoncelliste Sviatolav Knushevitski, Mme si d’aucuns taxeront cette musique d’acadmique, il demeure qu’elle ne mrite pas in purgatoire qu’on lui a fait subir, considrant qu’elle nous entrane fort heureusement hors des lieux communs de la littrature concertante pour violoncelle ordinairement en registre.

    Aprs Honegger et Miaskovski, Julian Lloyd Webber se propose de. ressortir des oubliettes le Concerto pour violoncelle que Paul Hindemith, crivit en 1940 ne pas confondre, avec l’Opus 36/2, termin n l9.5 Etant donn qu’on ne les joue pratiquement plus en concert, il espre que s’s disques les ramneront l attention de chefs-d’orchestre qui les ajouteront leur rpertoire.

    Voil donc une faon intelligente de faire quelque chose d’utile. D’autant qu’ici, l’interprt possde une solide technique instrumentale belle compr hension des textes et une admirable sensibilit musicale.

    Carol Bergeron

  • Miaskovsky Cello Concerto

    Gramophone May 1992

    MIASKOVSKY. Cello Concerto in C minor, op. 66.

    SHOSTAKOVICH. The Limpid Stream. Op. 39 Adagio.

    TCHAIKOVSKY. Variations on a Rococo Theme in A minor

    Op. 33. Nocturne, Op. 19 No. 4.

    Julian Lloyd Webber (vc); London Symphony Orchestra / Maxim Shostakovich.

    Philips 434 106-2PH (63 minutes: DDD).

    A valuable disc, and an enjoyable one. Miaskovsky’s Cello Concerto has remained unjustly neglected by record companies since Rostropovich’s 1956 EMI recording with Sargent and the Philharmonia (available recently in a fine CD transfer, 11/88 – but since deleted). The Shostakovich Adagio, as far as I can tell, has never been recorded in this form. It does turn up in the 1951 Ballet Suite No. 2 slightly cut, and with unhappily bolstered orchestration by the Suite’s compiler, Lev Atovmian. The relative restraint of this original 1935 score, particularly in a performance as expressive as this one, is infinitely preferable, though its brief, central climax still retains its overwhelming force. Stalin’s reaction to Lady Macbeth in 1936 is common knowledge; less well known is that The Limpid Stream too was condemned by Pravda under the caption Falsity in Ballet .

    Not even Miaskovsky escaped the State’s accusing linger in the second round of condemnations (in 1948), despite winning a Stalin Prize for his Cello Concerto and being titled People’s Artist in 1946. The concerto (1944-5) is modestly orchestrated. the orchestral forces are identical to those used by Brahms in his First Piano Concerto – and it shares with the Elgar and Delius concertos an autumnal mood, albeit with an essentially Russian brooding and introspection, given full weight here with Lloyd Webber and Maxim Shostakovich, at 32 minutes, taking four minutes longer than Rostropovich and Sargent.

    They take their time over the Rococo Variations, as well: a more authentic account of the Original version (described on the score as the Composer’s Version i.e. without the cut and rearranged order of the standard version) than those recorded by Wallfisch (Chandos) and Isserlis (Virgin Classics), both of whom incorporate a few features from the standard version though you would he unlikely to spot the differences, mainly in the fifth variation, without a score. Lloyd Webber’s smooth, rich tone, has not the faintest trace of a rough edge: this is supremely elegant playing.

    Jonathan Swain