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Tag: reviews3

  • Rodrigo Concierto Como Un Divertimento

    Sunday Times 18th April 1982

    Julian Lloyd Webber and the Rodrigo Cello Concerto

    THE chief interest of Thursday’s Festival Hall concert by the LPO under Jesus Lopez-Cobos centred around a novelty, a Concierto como un Divertimento for cello and orchestra commissioned by the soloist, Julian Lloyd Webber from the nearly octogenarian blind Spanish composer, Joaquin Rodrigo. Famed mainly for his two guitar concertos, Rodrigo has produced here a predictably pretty, pleasantly ear-tickling piece, full of authentic Spanish . rhythmic and melodic colour in a transparent score which sets the soloist in neat relief in all three movements.

    On the other hand, he has spared Mr Lloyd Webber nothing in difficult and persistently wide-ranging passage-work which he tackled with enthusiastic address. The aged composer was present to share in the applause; it earned a repeat of the finale a not very common occurrence these days, and a measure of the new work’s direct appeal.

    FELIX APRAHAMIAN

  • Rodrigo Concierto Como Un Divertimento

    Gramophone August 1982

    Julian Lloyd Webber plays the Rodrigo Cello Concerto

    LALO Cello Concerto in D minor.

    Julian Lloyd Webber(vlc): London Philharmonic Orchestra / Jesus Lopez-Cobos.

    One wonders if Julian Lloyd Webber, before chasing off to Spain to commission a new cello concerto from Rodrigo, knew of the existence of the Concierto en modo galanie, written in 1949 and recorded recently by Robert Cohen (HMV ASD4198, 4/82). So the newest concerto must be regarded as No. 2, and what a delightful encore it makes. It is even more Spanish in feeling than the earlier work, the melodies of the outer movements having a strong local flavour. The first movement sets off in the friendliest way with a catchy main theme, and the hauntingly atmospheric Adagio nostalgico brings another tenderly sinuous melody which easily insinuates itself into the subconscious. The finale, a characteristic molo perpeiuo, also has an engaging central lyrical strain. Altogether this is a listening experience to make the hearer rejoice that Rodrigo has written yet another piece of distinction that goes out of its way to communicate and give pleasure in its melodic contours and its craftsmanship. The performance is wholly recommendable. Lloyd Webber is totally attuned to the spirit of the music, fully equal to its technical fireworks, and his playing is imbued with warmth. He is admirably accompanied and well recorded.

    Ivan March

  • Rodrigo Concierto Como Un Divertimento

    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

    This 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

  • Rodrigo Concierto Como Un Divertimento: 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

  • Rawsthorne Cello Sonata

    The Financial Times 15th December 1987

    Julian Lloyd Webber’s afternoon recital at the Wigmore Hall on Sunday, with pianist Peter Pettinger, brought the first performance of Malcolm Arnold’s Fantasy for solo cello, along with sonatas by Beethoven and Debussy and some other English items. Frank Bridge’s Scherzetto for cello and piano was played, and his haunting little Elegie. Alan Rawsthorne’s Sonata of 1949 made a powerful impression with its cogent argument and dipped manner of musical speech: Rawsthorne has a marvellous way of taking stock neo-romantic rhetoric, stripping away all that is fleshy and false about it, and presenting us with a discourse which is very subtly arresting. Peter Pettinger had rather more to do in this sonata of equals than just give the cellist support, and his solo passages were shapely and striking. Lloyd Webber’s performance was articulate, impassioned, large-toned, persuasive.

    The Arnold new work, his Opus 130 no less (though he has not latterly been producing as copiously as of old), is extremely attractive, quite short, and wholly unpretentious: a continuous unfolding of seven little sections, each vividly characterised and concisely written. The opening Andantino (reprised at the end as the’ seventh section) is broad and declamatory. The following Vivace sports a funny bouncy rhythm reminiscent of “Half a pound of tuppenny rice” which is immediately cut off each time it appears by a mournful lyrical phrase – the effect is peculiar, pointful and, although small-scale, distinctively Arnoldian. The Lento is melodious and, again, mournful (here I thought of the tune of one of the sadder Brahms Hungarian Dances). Next comes a march, then an affecting pizzicato serenade, then another Lento, one of strange melancholy, and finally the opening again, which returns satisfyingly and with, of course, changed significance. The Fantasy is a memorable and rather tearful little opus, a perfect gift to cellists of even average ability: Lloyd Webber’s virtuosity was scarcely taxed by it, but he did it proud.

    Paul Driver

  • Prokofiev Ballade

    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 rédial de musique de notre temps, faisant se rencontrer Chostakoviich et Britien, avant qu’une dernière amitié ne les lie dans la vie comme dans leur musique. Julian Lloyd Webber traite avec une égale splendeur leurs deux sonates, pourtant distantes de plus d’un quart de siècle. Ce traitement donne un nouvel éclat à l’Opus 65 de Britten. John McCabe, sans faire oublier le compositeur au piano avec Rostropovitch, s’impose dans le dialogue, tantôt de-bussyste, tantôt pré-classique de cette suite en cinq danses. Lloyd Webber, sans chercher à retrouver le lyrisme enjôleur de Slava, joue le jeu du Dia-logo original, accentue l’hispanisme stylisé du Scherzo-pizvcalo, se souvient de Delius dans l’Elegie; il installe une tension dramatique post-schubenienne, qui donne une réelle consistance à la Marcia, dans sa démarche proche des Pas dans la neige debussystes, ainsi qu’aux abrupts changements de climat du Moto perpétua final. Ce même traitement convient un peu moins bien à la Sonaie très classique de forme de Chostakoviich. Le déroutant Allegro initial exige une grande fluidité de phrasé tout en étant marqué de contrastes sous-jacents, à la manière de l’Opus 65 de Chopin.

    PIERRE-E. BARBIER

    TECHNIQUE C.D. : 6

    Image sombre, manquant de brillant

  • Peter Maxwell Davies: The Dundee Courier

    Perth Concert 13th April

    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.