Julian Lloyd Webber is a multi-talented international celebrity, held in the high regard by all those who love classical music.

During the past week, I have heard him talk to music students of the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts about the state of classical music today, teach some of the Academy’s most promising young cellists in public master class and present a brilliant public recital.

As a speaker, he is articulate and persuasive in his quest to bring classical music to a wider audience of young people. His teaching style is supportive, providing ideas for consideration.

As a performer, his technique and musicality are beyond reproach. If Philips, for whom he records, had wished a recording of his recital could have been issued without changing a single note.

The carefully structured programme, played completely from memory, opened with JS Bach’s Adagio in G (BMV156). It was hard to believe that this work was not originally written for cello. The beautiful sound of his 2Barjansky” Stradivarius hovered above the audience long after his bow had stopped.

Lloyd Webber’s control is truly amazing. In the Debussy Sonata (1915), Faure Elegie and Delius Sonata for Cello and Piano in One Movement (1915), which followed, every nuance, from the merest whisper of sound, had an expressive function within the phrase.

Subtle changes of vibrato highlighted specific notes in the wonderful harmonies of the Rachmaninoff Sonata in G minor for Piano and Cello, Op19.

Lloyd Webber’s concept of his work included all the grand gestures normally associated with Rachmaninoff, but the characteristic pathos and suffering were expressed without resorting to sentimentality. This was an intimate, refined interpretation filled with dignity.

The programme also included a brief Nocturne for Cello and Piano by William Lloyd Webber, Julian’s father.

Following the concert, Lloyd Webber, with his superb accompanist John Lenehan, took the time to autograph recordings and chat with a ling line of fans. It was a pleasant sight.
Merrili Debski

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