As we know from his live performances, Julian Lloyd Webber has a firm, richly coloured and full-focused tone moreover it records well. Julian Lloyd Webber (vc) with various artists.Ī first-class package in every way. Neither should you.ĭAVID MELLOR Gramophone April 1999 Favourite Cello Concertos
Tickets are reasonably priced and the cause, the Prince’s Trust, is a worthwhile one. Why not judge for yourselves, not just from the discs, but from a celebratory concert to be given by Julian and his brother at the Royal Albert Hall on June 1, when they will play in public for the first time music from the forthcoming Julian Plays Andrew CD. I am equally certain that the name has often inhibited recognition of just how special he is. When he started there were some who suggested he was benefiting from the Lloyd Webber name. Julian has never taken his fame for granted and practises several hours a day. Every nuance has been digested and rehearsed, so what you get is a remarkably detailed reading, with all sorts of things you do not hear elsewhere making their impression, without damaging the overall sweep of this commanding work. This recording more than any other shows Julian at his absolute best. There is the original version of Tchaikovsky’s lovable Rococo Variations and a stunning Saint-Saens First Concerto with the son of another cellist, Yan Pascal Tortelier, on the podium. Here his outstanding Elgar, with Yehudi Menuhin conducting, is coupled with a particularly fine account of the Dvorak Concerto recorded in Prague with the Czech Philharmonic. Philips started recording him in 1984 and some of the finest fruits of his labours for them have been put on to an inexpensive two-CD set entitled Favourite Cello Concertos. Celebration, in honour of his birthday and include, as well as the Rodrigo recording, some outstanding English music: Delius’s Concerto, an unjustly neglected piece, and Holst’s Invocation, which is heard today solely because of Julian’s efforts. The recordings he made for RCA in the early Eighties have been gathered together in a twofer. Julian’s discography is a long one, so let me pull out two plums. Michael Nyman wrote a concerto for cello and saxophone for him, while Gavin Bryars achieved considerable kudos from his concerto for Julian, ‘ Farewell To Philosophy’. Julian has made more than 50 world premiere recordings, pushing out the boundaries of the cello repertoire in all directions. So, on his discs, Gounod’s ‘Ave Maria’ and Bach’s ‘Jesu, Joy Of Man’s Desiring’ rub shoulders with an award-winning Elgar Cello Concerto, while ‘Softly Awake My Heart’ from Samson And Delilah sits comfortably alongside the world premiere recording of the Cello Concerto the great Rodrigo himself wrote for Julian in 1982. He reasons: why should the devil have all the good tunes when the cello always sounds the noblest of the lot? And few make it sound more beautiful than Julian on his Stradivarius. Julian has never despised a good tune and throughout his career has either made himself or commissioned from others arrangements of great melodies from opera or the repertoire of other instruments.
But that same Julian Lloyd Webber is touring north of the border this week, giving the world premiere of a notably uncompromising piece by Scotland’s most promising serious composer, James MacMillan, his Cello Sonata No 2. His next album will be arrangements of his brother’s most memorable melodies. He recognises no musical barriers and effortlessly straddles the divide between popular and serious that cuts off so many others from their audience. Julian Lloyd Webber was 50 yesterday, a fitting moment to pay tribute to an outstanding artist and one of music’s nicest and most approachable of men. Hilary Finch The Mail on Sunday 15th April 2001 For he’s a jolly good cello… He ensured that the first movement’s great song was elegantly, lightly breathed, as was his loose-limbed playing in the slow movement, and his admirably fluid accompaniment to the orchestra’s winsome woodwind serenading.” “…Lloyd-Webber psyched himself up for a wild and woody entry. The Times March 6th 2008 Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra / Wit at Cadogan Hall
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