Back in April I was reviewing, with considerable enthusiasm, Julian Lloyd Webber’s generous mid-price compilation of ‘Favourite Cello Concertos’. Now Philips has assembled a second collection of his recordings, this time of popular encore pieces (mostly transcriptions). He opens with a tastefully ‘vocal’ rendering of Franck’s Panis angelicus and ends with a noble Cantilena from Rheinberger; however, the highlight for me is a movingly warm, yet not over-the-top account of Bruch’s Kol Nidrei.
His own charming little tribute to Jacqueline du Pre (first heard on the concerto compilation) is again included, and I rather liked the Massenet Meditation on a cello rather than a violin. Other highlights are Caccini’s gently touching Ave Maria, which is the kind of half-familiar, nostalgic piece one can’t put a name to. The Russian melodies are played romantically, but without swooning: I best enjoyed the least-known, Glazunov’s Melodie, Op. 20 No. 1. However the Chopin Nocturne in E flat major stands out as an example of an untranscribable piano piece. (Roy Douglas’s inspired scoring of Les Sylphides is the one exception to the rule that Chopin only works on the piano.) As I said in my review of the concerto compilation, Lloyd Webber has a firm, richly coloured and full-focused tone which records well. If you enjoy typical lollipops played on the cello with affectionate flair, then neither the warm recording, nor the quantity of music offered, can be faulted.'