Elgar and a Haydn Novelty
By MARCEL GRILLI
The Japan Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra’s subscription concert, conducted by Jiri Belohlavek, introduced the
English cellist, Julian Lloyd Webber, featuring cello concertos by Elgar and Haydn, concluding
the evening with Dvorak's Seventh Symphony (Tokyo Bunka Kaikan Oct 22).
Lloyd Webber presented a beautifully shaped and warmly toned account of Elgar’s exacting E minor Concerto. It was
an intensely enjoyable performance, with playing of strong feeling, finely spun singing line, and, particularly in the slow
movement, deep poetry. The orchestral accompaniment guided by Belohlavek had good spirit.
The Haydn Concerto in D major (Hob.VIIb/4) we heard on this occasion was a novelty — not the familiar one of 1783, but
a work based on a cello-piano manuscript version discovered in 1943, from which Lloyd Webber made his own performing
version for cello and strings. Whether or not this music is really by Haydn is yet to be established.
But Lloyd Webber’s enthusiastic playing certainly made a favorable case for it.
(There is a Philips recording of this work, coupled with the fine C major Concerto, another recent
Haydn discovery, in winch Lloyd Webber serves both as soloist and conductor of the English Chamber Orchestra).
