April 22, 2015

  • Jullian Lloyd Webber's Conducting Debut

    And the Bridge is Love: English Music for Strings
    English Chamber Orchestra/Julian Lloyd Webber, cello
    Naxos 8.573250
    Total Time:  70:07
    Recording:   ****/****
    Performance: ****/****

    When it comes to string orchestra music, England can certainly seem to hold a grand monopoly of amazing works.  Julian Lloyd Webber has pulled together a collection here of the familiar and less familiar along with four “premiere” recordings.  The music here spans over a century from Elgar to the disc’s title work by Howard Goodall, and a 1950 piece by William Lloyd Webber that was only recently performed in 2014.

    Edward Elgar’s music makes up half the disc’s playing time, but the pieces are spread out a bit in the program.  Among the more familiar is the Serenade for Strings, Op. 20 from 1892 and the Introduction and Allegro, Op. 47 which launches the disc.  The latter was originally intended as a work for the newly-formed London Symphony Strings.  The 1905 work is another example as well of the use of folk song with a Welsh tune serving as the basis for the “allegro”.  For many Elgar’s lyricism is perhaps most memorable.  It is very much on display in the beautiful Sospiri (1914).  The piece is set for strings, harp, and a harmonium (used here).  Certainly it is one of the most touching of Elgar’s miniatures.  The Serenade (1892) comes at about the midpoint of the program.  This collection of three little pieces was a wedding gift to his wife at the time.  The heart of the piece is the central “Larghetto” which is touchingly performed here.  There are a couple of additional miniatures arranged by his close friend W.H. Reed and receiving their world premiere recordings here.  The two Op. 15 Chansons de nuit were composed in 1897/99 and orchestrated in the late 1930s.

    The disc is also populated with a host of smaller works for strings.  The first of these is a string arrangement of a song made by the composer William Lloyd Webber (1914-1982).  Based on poetry by the Welshman William Henry Davies, The Moon is an interesting little reflective piece for strings.  It sets the tone for the newest work, and premiere, of Howard Goodall’s And the Bridge is Love (2008).  The inspiration comes from Thornton Wilder’s novel The Bridge of San Luis Rey.  The piece is an elegy of sorts for cello and strings in memoriam of a young cellist who died tragically in 2007.  Goodall, a close friend of the family, wrote this work in response to her death.  It also features Julian Lloyd Webber who interestingly has made this his final recording as a solo cellist, turning now to conducting.  The piece is a delicately scored work with a long, lyrical line for the soloist.  It fits quite well on this disc.  There is just a taste of Vaughan Williams offered here from the Charterhouse Suite (1923), whose “Prelude” livens things up a bit, and the disc closes with the minuet from Ireland’s A Downland Suite.  Two oft-performed string works are also included here: the beautiful Aquarelles of Delius—both wonderfully realized here, and two familiar pieces from Walton’s Henry V score (the “Passacaglia” and “Touch Her Soft Lips and Part”).

    Naxos’ recording allows for a great full sound from the ECO who has played many of these pieces throughout their history.  The music has a great blend of older standard repertoire with a few new surprises and one can hope that perhaps Lloyd Webber and the ECO will continue to explore this vast repertoire on future releases.  The Goodall work from which the CD takes its title is worth its time and a good reason to revisit even the other familiar territory here.  As the music unfolds, one also tends to call to mind other wonderful string pieces that would be also great to hear and which may indeed be on the horizon.  The recording marks Julian Lloyd Webber’s first as a conductor.