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Tag: reviews1

  • Bach Air on a G String

    Julian Lloyd Webber and the EU Chamber Orchestra at St George’s, Bristol

    20th April 2012

    The European Union is not something one would normally expect to be associated with music, but their chamber orchestra is exceptional. Formed in 1981, they now have a worldwide reputation as musical ambassadors. Opening an evening of style and grace at St George’s, Bristol with Handel’s Arrival of the Queen of Sheba, the orchestra gave an air of confidence. Not only were they incredibly unified, but they had a cheery disposition on stage; smiling and connecting with each other through the music. From the third act of Handel’s oratorio Solomon, the celebratory nature of this work started the night off with a bang. It provided a clever welcome to Julian Lloyd Webber as musical royalty.

    The programme for the evening was a mixture of well-known classical works, from Bach’s Air on a G string, to Samuel Barber’s Adagio for Strings. The Adagio was spine-tingling; being one of those pieces where you daren’t breath through fear of making a noise and ruining the sheer perfection of it all. The suspended notes give the piece a melismatic quality that keeps the listener in suspense due to its use of unusual, ever-changing time signatures. The icing on the cake was an ambiguous final note that just left you wanting more and, despite Barber having composed a Molto allegro to follow in the quartet version and answer the open-ended quality of this piece, it was nice to hear it on its own.

    The star of the night, Julian Lloyd Webber is widely held to be one of the leading cellists of his generation. His story as a musician started at the age of sixteen with a scholarship to the Royal College of Music, after which he completed his studies in Geneva under the renowned French cellist Pierre Fournier. The sound of his ‘Alexandre Barjansky’ Stradavarius cello (c. 1690) has a unique quality with subtle nuances that allowed Lloyd Webber to give the audience a personal performance. He was so completely involved in the music it was almost as though you could see him humming the Haydn Concerto in C major in his head. The Air on a G string is a tricky piece to perform as not only is it extremely well known, it is all on one string, which gives it a romantic, relaxed feel by sliding smoothly between notes. Lloyd Weber’s interpretation of the concerto was understated and elegant and met with a great response from the audience. He played as though he was relating to a personal memory in both pieces and his performance could be described as cerebral and intellectual. Many soloists will move around wildly with the music whereas Lloyd Webber gave a tight performance straight from his heart and imagination. On stage, he demonstrated the true power of his knowledge of the music.

    The night was nicely rounded off with an orchestral encore of Handel’s Water Music Suite no. 1 in F. This was a pleasant piece, full of optimism and acting as a coda to an evening of captivating musical works. Whilst Julian Lloyd Webber gave a fantastic performance it was the European Union Chamber Orchestra that stood out (and literally stood up) throughout the entire performance. All credit to them and their director Jérôme Akoka (lead violin) for an excellent evening.

    Alexandra Hamilton-Ayres

  • Bach

    Turkish Daily News 27th June 2007

    Classic brilliance resonates in ancient walls – Istanbul Concert Review

    Music gently winds through the corridors of the ancient Byzantine structure Hagia Eirini, at the concert, Festival Meetings II, performed by an acclaimed cellist, cello quartet and pianist

    As four cellists raise their bows in the air and strike the cellos strings with utmost grace, Bach’s Air in D Major gently resonates in a former Eastern Orthodox Church, Hagia Eirini Museum (Aya lrini) at the Topkapi Palace on Monday night. As the music gently whines through the corridors of the ancient Byzantine structure and rises to the atrium, a surreal musical journey begins in an enchanting setting of history and culture that creates the perfect atmosphere for music lovers of all ages. Festival Meetings II, featuring an acclaimed cellist, Julian Lloyd Webber, cello quartet çellistanbul and pianist Pam Chowhan is part of the 35th International Istanbul Music Festival. The festival is the latest creation of a creative musician and an ensemble of musicians whose passion for classical sound resonates from their soul. Istanbul’s own cello quartet ‘çeliistanbul’, started the audience on a journey of choral harmonies. Inspired by the city Istanbul and its magical atmosphere, the group is formed of cellists who graduated from the same Conservatoire of music their repertoire includes classical as well as modern works. “I am on a Long, Narrow Road” was a special composition for the quartet based on Asik Veysel’s melody that proved to the audience they were witnessing brilliant performers.

    Each cord was played in unison echoing the emotion of the music on the individual faces and swaying bodies 0r the cellists. The group was one entity playing off each other’s enthusiasm and passion. Their long composition was met with equal pleasure from the audience as each note created tension in the already thick church air. The last note in the composition is held in harmony. The audience holds its breath. Time stops. The note finishes. The stunned audience breaks the silence with loud cheers and applause.

    The group also known for their works of tango and jazz finish off their set with Tango Passionata and Polonaise. The second set welcomes Julian Lloyd Webber to the stage with Pam Chowham accompanying him on the piano. He too begins with Bach’s C Major Adagio followed by Scherzetto. At first the music did not flow together.

    There seemed to be tension as each performer kept looking for signs and warmth the two instruments should create. It was not until Scherzo Pizzicato that the union warmed up and put their bows aside; Webber played the cello with his fingers. Claude Debussy’s Sonata (1915) was long and stunning. Inspired with patriotic sentiments his music flowed with watery magic to dark virtuosity. It was multi-faceted brilliance that was written for the flute, piano and cello and it worked with Chowhan accompanying Webber on the piano. The night was not over yet, as ‘çellistanbul’ joined Webber on stage to perform the last three compositions. Beginning with Astor Piazzolla’s Oblivion, the groups performance highlights not only Webber’s amazing ability to take original scores and create a compelling rhythm, hut to depict character through music that shows his way of bringing life to his playing, It would not be a Webber production without performing one of his brothers most popular songs from the popular musical Jesus Christ Superstar, “I Don’t Know How to Love Him.” The audience was really alive and hoped there was more when the performance ended. The silence was extensive and finally broken with loud applause. The applause brought Webber and the ‘çellistanbul’ quartet back on stage to perform an encore of Astor Piazolla’s Oblivion. This time when the last cord was held, the audience knew once the sound reached the atrium, the performance was truly over. A standing ovation ended a magical myriad of classical ethereal sound that was performed brilliantly.

    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

    Oxford Mail 26th June 1978

    The Bach Festival Concerts – Bach Cello Suites

    ‘Sensational on Cello’

    The Codrington Library at All Souls has the best acoustics in Oxford: a fact which has not escaped the attention of the administration of the English Bach festival, for the last 16 years promoters of the best music in Oxford. Yesterday afternoon, Lina Lalandi, the festival’s leading lady and brilliant impresario, and Julian Lloyd Webber gave a recital of Bach’s solo Suites for Harpsichord and unaccompanied cello (respectively). Intimate chamber works of this type tend to be overshadowed by events involving large numbers of performers. This, then, was a concert for the connoisseur.

    Suffuce it to say that in its technical acumen and innate musicality, Julian Lloyd Webber’s account of the first two cello Suites was as sensational as anything the reviewer can recall since the start of the festival. J.D.M