It has recently been announced that cellist Julian Lloyd
Webber www.julianlloydwebber.com has been appointed the new Principal of the
Birmingham Conservatoire. I can think of no better musician to help ensure the
future of musical education in Britain, thus making his appointment the ideal
choice.
Since a neck injury forced his decision to retire as a
cellist it is to be hoped that this new post will give Lloyd Webber
opportunities to forge a new career. However, it is not only as the Principal of
the Birmingham Conservatoire that this fine musician is forging new paths.
A new release from
Naxos www.naxos.com features
Julian Lloyd Webber as conductor of the English Chamber Orchestra www.englishchamberorchestra.co.uk
in
a collection of English Music for Strings
entitled And the Bridge is Love. This
new recording includes no less than four world premiere recordings.
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| 8.573250 |
The strings of the English Chamber Orchestra really bite
into the opening bars of Edward Elgar’s
(1857-1934) Introduction and Allegro, Op. 47 (1905) before the music slows.
Julian Lloyd Webber brings some particularly fine moments of hushed repose, so
sensitive and thoughtful. The ECO provide a very fine string tone in some
beautiful passages, offset by the most intense emotional moments. There is a beautiful
care of dynamics, particularly when leading into faster passages. This is tip
top string playing with terrific ensemble. Lloyd Webber pushes the music ahead
with great drive before the glorious broad sweeping passages which lead towards
the coda.
This is a particularly fine performance that must rank among
the very best on record.
This conductor brings his fine musicianship to Elgar’s Sospiri, Op. 70 (1914) in a
performance that draws the most exquisite playing from the ECO, subtly drawing
moments of intensity and a richness of string texture that is really quite
lovely.
Julian Lloyd Webber gives the world premiere recording of his father, William Lloyd Webber’s (1914-1982) The Moon (1950). This lovely
little piece has a quintessential Englishness that fits perfectly into this
programme; a lovely, subtle rise and fall with some lovely string playing.
Howard Goodall’s
(b.1958) And the Bridge Is Love (2008) is another world premiere recording
that gives this disc its title. This performance features Lloyd Webber as
conductor and cello soloist. The title is a quotation from a Pulitzer Prize
winning novel by Thornton Wilder (1897-1975) http://thorntonwilder.com
and was composed in memory of a young cellist, the daughter of a close friend
of the composer.
The piece opens quietly on lower strings together with harp
before Lloyd Webber brings a cello melody that arises, slowly becoming firmer
and supported by an increasingly richer orchestral string sound. The music moves
through some lovely passages, at times very much in the English tradition yet
with a contemporary feel. Lloyd Webber finds much beauty as well as some
terrific little phrases for cello that add interest to the music. There is a poignant
coda, especially so if this is the last recording we are likely to have from
this great cellist.
Ralph Vaughan
Williams’ (1872-1958) The Charterhouse Suite began life as a Suite of Six Short Pieces for Piano published
in 1921before being orchestrated by James Brown in collaboration with Vaughan
Williams and renamed The Charterhouse
Suite, after his old school and published in 1923. Here we are given just
the short Prelude. It has a buoyant,
jolly theme played here with crisp precision.
A lovely rhythmic buoyancy opens the Allegro Piacevole of Elgar’s
Serenade for Strings, Op.20 (1892) bringing a subtle orchestral rubato and
beautifully judged tempi. There is a beautifully shaped Larghetto with Lloyd Webber again finding lovely sonorities and beautiful,
natural flow. The Allegretto - Come prima
brings a lovely lilt, a gentle spring to the music as well as some fine string
details.
It was Frederick
Delius’ (1862-1934) amanuensis, Eric Fenby, that arranged the composer’s Two Songs to be sung of a summer night on
the water (1917) for wordless unaccompanied chorus as Two Aquarelles (1917/1932). Here No.1: Lento, ma non troppo is beautifully done, just the right
amount of ebb and flow with lovely string sonorities. No.2: Gaily, but not quick has a nice rhythmic lift, such a
fleeting nature before it rises only to fall to a lovely coda.
These two lovely miniatures are beautifully played.
Violinist, leader of the London Symphony Orchestra and
friend of Elgar, W. H. (Billy) Reed arranged the
composer’s Chanson De Nuit and Chanson De Matin for string orchestra in
1939. Lloyd Webber and the English Chamber Orchestra bring a calm, gentle
stateliness as Chanson De Nuit, Op. 15,
No. 1 (1897/1939) unfolds, before subtly allowing the music to rise, nicely
shaped, beautifully phrased and wonderfully controlled. Chanson De Matin, Op. 15, No. 2 (1899/1939) is, again, beautifully
shaped and phrased with fine flexible tempi.
William Walton’s
(1902-1983) Two Pieces for Strings from Henry V (1944) are taken from his music
for Laurence Olivier’s film of Shakespeare’s Henry V. Passacaglia: Death of Falstaff achieves a fine, dark opening, hushed
and mysterious and with a depth that is often missed. The music opens out
exquisitely before the hushed coda. To follow there is a lovely Touch her soft lips and part, gentle,
exquisite and finely controlled.
John Ireland (1879-1962)
wrote his A Downland Suite for
the National Brass Band Championships in 1932. In four sections, Ireland later
arranged the second and third sections for string orchestra, Geoffrey Bush
arranging the first and fourth sections. Here Julian Lloyd Webber and the
English Chamber Orchestra play No.3.
Minuet: Allegretto Grazioso (1942) in
a lovely performance that is beautifully paced and shaped, bringing some very
fine playing from the orchestra.
With a vivid recording from Watford Colosseum, Watford,
England this is one of the finest discs of such repertoire available. There are
informative notes from Peter Avis and Howard Goodall.
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