A furious Julian Lloyd-Webber talks to Mark Brittain
JULIAN Lloyd Webber is angry. He wasn't when the interview began, but now there is no disguising his fury. "It's a total disaster," he says. "Something's got to be done. They're taking our livelihoods away.
It's nothing to do with security. Why are they picking on cellists? Why should we be seen as terrorists?!"
Fortunately it is not a problem Lloyd Webber will encounter when he visits the North Wales International Music Festival for only the second time later this month (he played with "Will" Mathias "many years ago"). But it is exercising his mind right now.
The problem is his priceless 1690 "Barjansky" Stradivarius. He won't perform without it. Not because he's a prima donna - quite the contrary, he plays in the most out-of-the-way places you can imagine, often preferring schools to concert halls - but because "it would be unfair to the audience. You can't just pick up a different instrument every concert."
But with the recent anti-terror restrictions it's increasingly difficult. "Someone has to hold on to the truth," he exclaims. "For years you were allowed to pass through airport X-ray machines with your cello. Now they won't even allow you to accompany it onto the plane. You can't hide liquids in a cello!"
This, for anyone who's just returned from the moon, is a reference to the alleged bomb plot to down airliners using chemicals disguised as shampoos and contact lens solution and so forth.
Cellos being particularly susceptible to moisture and temperature, the idea of filling one with gunge clearly appals this world-famous player - brother of composer and impresario Sir Andrew. Almost as much as the idea of allowing his Strad to disappear down a bumpy conveyor belt and be assaulted by several tons of suitcases before being thrown into the belly of a plane, bent into a figure of eight and frozen.
When he played in an open-air concert in Jersey recently he had to use a private plane, and even then it
was a "massive job" to keep the cello safe from indifferent baggage handlers and surly security staff. "All you're going to hear soon is local cellists," he prophesies.
Julian and Andrew are the sons of composer William Lloyd Webber, director of the London College of Music. Julian was attracted to the cello at an early age and has gone on to be regarded as one of the most creative musicians of his generation.
He has collaborated with some of the biggest names in modern music, from Elton John to Yehudi Menuhin
and won a Classical Brit Award for his recording of the Elgar concerto and Tchaikovsky's Rococo Variations.
His latest album, Unexpected Songs, is a collaboration with our own Catrin Finch on harp, plus a pianist and the ever-popular singer Michael Ball, who has taken the lead roles in many of Andrew's musicals. And the title track is composed by Andrew, too: this, and most of the other 19 on the album (all Julian's favourites from core classics to Cat Stevens' Lady D'Arbanville) form the lion's share of the St Asaph Cathedral
concert in 11 days' time when he links back up with Catrin, accompanied by Pam Chowhan on piano.
"I can't wait to play with Catrin again," he says. "Working with her was so natural. She is so musical. It was the quickest ever disc to record. All first takes." . Julian Lloyd Webber performs with Catrin Finch in Unexpected Songs, at St Asaph Cathedral on Tuesday, September 19, at 7.30pm. Tickets from the North Wales International Music Festival Office in High Street, St. Asaph. Box Office: 01745 584508.
