The Guardian 12th June 1998
Lloyd Webber: Invocation; Aurora; lnvocataion; Serenade for Strings etc
Little/Lloyd Webber/CLS /Hickox (Chandos CHAN 9595)
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No, not Andrew, but William Lloyd Webber, the father, demonstrating in 10 short works that he wrote tunes every bit as fluently as his son. Lloyd Webber senior, church organist and teacher, was an arch romantic at heart, whose style sets English pastoral alongside Rachmaninov-1ike surges of passion. The most ambitious piece is the symphonic poem, Aurora, which starts like Bartok as smoothed over by Vaughan Williams, then develops in a colourfully orchestrated sequence. A forthright setting of the Mass written for Westminster
Cathedral happily reconciles Roman and Anglican manners, yet all these miniatures, beautifully performed and recorded, offer music of winning openness.
Edward Greenfield