Frensham Pond

Tasmin Little(violin) and John Lenehan(piano)

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A Celebration of William Lloyd Webber

Classicalsource March 2014

St Martin’s Voices

Andrew Earis (organ)

Charlotte Scott (violin), Julian Lloyd Webber (cello) & Rebeca Omordia (piano)

Nicholas Wearne (organ)

Rowan Morton Gledhill (presenter)

St Martin-in-the-Fields, Trafalgar Square, London

Tuesday, March 11, 2014 Given the fame of his two sons, Andrew and Julian, it was perhaps surprising that this celebration of their father William Lloyd Webber’s centenary, given on the day itself, was not more glitzy affair. However the understated nature of the event was wholly in keeping with the man’s character and this made the occasion all the more touching.

William Lloyd Webber (1914-1982) was one of British music’s most enigmatic composers. Possessed with a remarkable gift for melody, he felt – as the concert’s excellent presenter, Rowan Morton Gledhill, explained – “out of step” with the times and simply ceased composing for a large part of his life. W. Lloyd Webber wrote deeply romantic, heartfelt music at a time when those qualities were least valued and here we heard numerous examples of his melodic and beautifully written miniatures, ably performed by St Martin’s Voices under Andrew Earis (Director of Music at St Martin-in-the-Fields) although there were times when we might have wished for a greater range of dynamics.

Two anthems, Most Glorious Lord of Lyfe and Lo! My Shepherd is Divine, opened the concert and preceded what may well, incredibly, have been the first performance of an assured four-part song, Margery. Earis then played two short but piquant organ solos – ‘Christ in the Tomb’ from The Divine Compassion, and Trumpet Minuet – before Lloyd Webber’s younger son, cellist Julian, made the first of his two contributions to the evening. He revealed that his father had told him that In the Half Light for cello and piano depicts someone sitting by the fire late one night looking back over their life. He gave an exquisite performance, ably partnered by Rebeca Omordia. The first half ended with possibly the finest of the chosen works, the choral Missa Princeps Pacis, a beautifully crafted and proportioned composition with echoes of Fauré, performed here with delicacy.

And it was St Martin’s Voices that began the second half in rousing style with Love Divine, All Loves Excelling, followed by another part-song premiere: the simple but breathtakingly beautiful The Moon. From the organ loft, violinist Charlotte Scott and organist Nicholas Wearne (organist at St Martin-in-the-Fields) then performed the soaring Benedictus for Violin and Organ which Lloyd Webber had written to play at his own wedding service together with his violinist bride Jean. A deceptively simple piano miniature ‘Willow Song’ from the cycle Three Spring Miniatures was sensitively played by Omordia who was then again joined by Julian in the darkly romantic Nocturne. A fascinating evening concluded with ‘New Life in Christ’, the last part of the cantata, The Saviour, the Parry-like final pages of which are as thrilling and climactic as anything to be found in British choral music.

Ben Collis

American Record Guide September/October 2000

WEBBER: Sacred Choral

A Hymn of Thanksgiving; Mass, Princeps Pacis; Lo! my Shepherd is Divine; Dominus Firmamentum Meum; Mass, Sanctae Mariae Magdalenae; 0 Love, I give Myself to Thee; Tantum Ergo Sacramentum; Magnificat & Nunc Dimittis in E minor; Most Glorious Lord of Life! Love Divine, all Loves Excelling; Sing the Life; The Stable where the Oxen Stood; New Life in Christ(from ‘The Saviour’).

Nicholas Luff. organ; Choir of All Saints, Margaret Street / Harry Bramma

Priory 677 (Albany) 73 minutes

Webber was well known as an organist and composer before joining the Royal College of Music in 1946 as professor of theory and composition. He was also director of the London College of Music. From 1939 to 1948, he was organist and choirmaster at All Saints Margaret Street.

Webber’s overall style is firmly fixed in the romantic era of Stanford and Vaughan Williams. But the sacred choral music displays his unique talent, in a variety of styles and moods. On the whole, these works are contemplative, as opposed to celebratory. They represent a style of church music that needs to be revisited in this country – intelligent texts coupled with glorious, well-crafted music.

The performance by the Choir of All Saints Margaret Street is magnificent. They sing with a warm blend that is not often heard in mixed English choirs. There are only 12 singers, but their sound is rich and rewarding. I could only wish for more bass voices. The sopranos sometimes overpower them.

If you like English choral music, this is a must-have.

BOND

BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE (SEPTEMBER 1998)

WILLIAM LLOYD WEBBER

Invocation: Mass ‘Princeps pacis’; Serenade for Strings;

Aurora; Three Spring Miniatures; Invocation; Lento; Nocturne, etc

Tasmin Little (violin), Julian Lloyd Webber (cello), Ian Watson (organ), City of London Sinfonia/Richard Hickox

Chandos CHAN 9595 62:38 mins £ £ £

This CD comprises ten works demonstrating Lloyd Webber’s gentle, subtle melodic gift and his skill at compressing complex material, frequently employing unexpected developments, into short time spans. The Faure-like missa brevis Princeps Pacis combines all these attributes: it is a little jewel with a sublime Gloria that culminates, radiantly, at ‘Cum Sancto Spiritu…’. Tasmin Little’s sweet tones distinguish the Benedictus for violin and organ, written for the composer’s wedding service and suitably Romantic. Julian Lloyd Webber is ideally partnered by Skaila Kanga in the tender supplications of the Nocturne from his father’s oratorio St Francis of Assisi. Kanga’s sensitive playing also informs Aurora, a tone poem about the goddess of the dawn, the most impressive work here. Lloyd Webber draws a fine evocation of dawn mists, strengthening daylight and the sense of joy at a new day as well as the awesome majesty and sensuality of Aurora.

Lento is brooding and intense; its intricate and hyper-expressive harmonies echo late Mahler or early Schoenberg while the CD title piece,

Invocation, for strings, harp and timpani, is intense and romantic. Hickox is persuasive in all his items.

Ian Lace

PERFORMANCE ****

SOUND****

BBC Music Magazine July 1996

WILLIAM LLOYD WEBBER

Sonatina for Viola and Piano; Nocturne; Two Pieces for Cello and Piano; Missa Sanctae Mariae

Magdalenae; Seven Pieces for Piano; Five Songs for Tenor and Piano

Philip Dukes (viola), Ian Watson

(organ), Julian Lloyd Webber (cello), John Graham-Hall (tenor), Sophia

Rahman, John Lill, Philip Ledger (piano); Richard Hickox Singers!

Richard Hickox

ASVCDDCA961 DDD

59:16 mins V939

The shy, retiring father of Andrew and Julian, William Lloyd Webber composed in many different forms, mostly from 1945 to the mid-Fifties, when he abandoned composition for teaching because he felt his Romantic style was outdated. His music is accessible and concise. Indeed, it is remarkable how much material and development is so comfortably spaced in his melodic, eight-minute Sonatina for viola and piano. All the artists featured on this CD perform with conviction and devotion. Julian Lloyd Webber’s and John Lill’s contributions are particularly moving, especially the beautiful Nocturne and ‘In the half-light’ (the first of the Two Pieces) — a brief, intense portrait of an elderly person surveying his life. Much is derivative, often deliberately, to fit a commission. The light Seven Pieces for Piano, are pure delight in Lill’s hands; three are written in homage to Rachmaninov, and ‘Romantic Evening’ and ‘Explanation’ remind one of Noel Coward and Ivor Novello.

The songs are somewhat uneven, but John Graham-Hall conveys a delicate mix of joy and sadness as he sees his love rushing ‘Over the Bridge’ to meet him. The Mass shows impressive contrapuntal craftsmanship and the Hickox Singers display great precision and clarity. Delightful, undemanding music that grows on you.

IAN LACE

PERFORMANCE

SOUND ****

EVENING STANDARD ‘ES’ MAGAZINE 26th July 1996

CD CHOICE – WILLIAM LLOYD WEBBER

Selected chamber works, five songs for tenor and piano,

Missa Sanctae Mariae Magdalenae Philip Dukes (viola), John Lill (piano), Julian Lloyd Webber, (cello), John Graham-Hall (tenor) Richard Hickox Singers, conducted by Richard Hickox ASV CD DCA 961

The name Lloyd Webber has the power to send even the most reasoned of folk into reels of scoffing paroxysm. We have to face it though, Andrew is the most successful composer alive and Julian is justly regarded as one of the most accomplished of modern classical cellists But what of the august creator of their beings? William Lloyd Webber (1914-1982) was not a particularly successful composer in his lifetime and although he studied with Vaughan Williams his income was derived mainly from his work as art organist and teacher. Now he is revealed to be a composer of lyrical pastoral and virtuosic talent whose delightful Viola Sonatina, Arabesque and Scherzo for solo piano prove to be highlights of a summery mixed recital of ear-opening musical trouves.

ALEXANDER WAUGH