CELEBRATION - FIFTIETH BIRTHDAY OF THE CELLIST, JULIAN LLOYD WEBBER Works for Cello and Orchestra

CD1
Joaquín RODRIGO Concierto como un Divertimento
Heitor VILLA-LOBOS Bachoianas Brasileiras No. 5 - aria
Edouard LALO Cello Concerto
David POPPER Gavotte No. 2
Camille SAINT-SAËNS Softly Awakes My Heart
Gabriel FAURÉ Elégie
Manuel de FALLA Ritual Fire Dance
CD2
Frederick DELIUS Cello Concerto
Frederick DELIUS Serenade from Hassan
Gustav HOLST Invocation
Ralph VAUGHAN WILLIANS Fantasia on Sussex Folk Tunes
J S BACH Arioso
Frank BRIDGE Scherzetto
Joseph CANTELOUBE Baïlero
Max BRUCH Kol Nidrei
Julian Lloyd Webber (cello)
LPO/Jesus Lopez-Cobos (Rodrigo; Lalo)
Philharmonia/Vernon Handley (Delius Concerto, RVW, Holst)
National PO/Charles Gerhardt (the rest)

These two CDs collect together recordings originally made during the period 1980-83.

The Rodrigo is spirited, sharp, vital and fluent - always singing and alive and with no hint academicism. The second movement appears to extol moonlit Mauresque gardens. A lovely ethereal sound captured with fidelity to stage depth and dynamic. This is typical Rodrigo - familiar from Aranjuez and Gentilhombre and to be relished. The cooling pools are given new twist of lime in the finale. The stereo separation is wonderful in the Gerhardt arrangement of the aria from the Villa-Lobos Bachianas.

The emphatically melodramatic Lalo Concerto has the tone of a concerto that would fit as an interlude in a grand French opera such as those by Reyer, Massenet or Saint-Saens. Lloyd Webber summons up, for the andantino, the same soulfully plangent tone on which he also draws to such grand effect in the rather soupy Kol Nidrei and in the sentiment-soaked Softly awakes my heart. By the way BMG it is Camille not Camile. The Bach arioso is done with dignity staying just the right side of the line of least resistance. It is done with great dignity.

Popper's Gavotte is a plaything with which Lloyd Webber gambols. It contrasts with the Fauré Elegie which muses gravely. Lloyd Webber projects with hoarse extroversion in the Ritual Fire Dance investing its every turn and twist with life and freshness - quite an accomplishment in such a warhorse. The Bridge Scherzetto is one of the three cello and pieces orchestrated by Francis Cornford. The initial vigour goes into remission in face of some sentimental poesy. Speaking of which we come to Canteloube's Baïlero. Here Lloyd Webber's sustained tone