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The Independent 9th May 1992


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MYASKOVSKY: Cello Concerto
TCHAIKOVSKY: Rococo Variations; Nocturne.
SHOSTAKOVICH: Adagio from The Limpid Stream
Julian Lloyd Webber, London Symphony Orchestra / Maxim Shostakovich
(Philips 434 106-2)

If there is anything even half as good as the Cello Concerto still languishing unheard amongst Myaskovsky’s other one hundred-plus compositions, then I want to know about it. They really don’t write them like this any more. These were the days when Russian composers enjoyed their melancholy, when the real spirit of delight was in nostalgia. From bar one, this lovely work is heavy with the loss of happier, more fulfilling times: the opening Lento rolls out, one gorgeous lyric phrase upon another. The second movement brings a folk dance or two, but still the essence is of a long elegiac reminiscence. It’s the kind of score that needs to be played from faded copies.

Lloyd Webber does so with richly sdrawn legatos and his customary generosity of feeling. This is some of the most sensitive playing that I have yet heard from him — and that goes also for his subtly inflected account of Tchaikovsky’s Variations on a Rococo Theme. The character of the theme properly colors every diversion: the scherzando elements are deftly turned, elegance is the watchword. There’s a lot of Tchaikovsky in the old-fashioned melody of the Adagio from Shostakovich’s ill-fated ballet The Limpid Stream. This is the first recording of its original orchestration replete with one brazen climax in which the composer’s son Maxim goes all-out to endorse his father’s youthful defiance. Splendid work from the LSO In quite outstanding sound. But above all, a new lease of life for the Myaskovsky starts here.
Edward Seckerson