The Cello Column v1 n1

The cello to me had always been a cumbersome, oversized violin, one sat against the lap rather than on the shoulder, until I borrowed an audio tape from the local library entitled Travels With My Cello by Julian Lloyd Webber.

I became entranced by what this soloist could do with an instrument I had only thought could create the rather loud background noise in an orchestra. (I was surely ignorant.) He played a variety of pieces by Debussy, Schumann, Bach, Strauss, Traumerei, Saint-Saëns, W.S. Lloyd Webber, and Albinoni, but the piece that appealed most was Rimsky-Korsakov’s Flight of the Bumblebee. It began an affair for me with the beauty of the “sound” of the cello. Julian Lloyd Webber is a superb young ambassador.

Recently, I borrowed, also from the local library, a book entitled Travels With My Cello which Julian Lloyd Webber calls his “ramble through the byways of music.” The dust jacket refers to it as a musical odyssey.

In his book, he deals with the decision to take up the cello against his family’s best advice, his choice of which scholarship to accept. He talks about the disappointment he felt with his first review in the Times because it was “better” than he deserved. We learn how he married his first fan. He can be quite serious about the emotional and physical struggles of being a soloist, but the book is more than liberally peppered with the very humorous side of carting a precious and well-loved cello across the world, seated beside him in its own airline seat.

On completion of his book, Julian Lloyd Webber concludes that despite his life being tiring and at times tough, he would choose again to be a “soloist” musician.

He ends with a quote from Pablo Casals who was asked after a particularly moving performance, “Can you tell me, are we in heaven or still on earth?” To which he replied, “On an earth that is… harmonized.” We can all take pleasure from such a world.

I wholeheartedly entice you to obtain this tape and book, whether you are an aspiring cellist or not. There are some nice photos and a discography at the back, which I’m sure can widen many sensitive horizons.

Alix Macartney

Travels With My Cello by Julian Lloyd Webber.
Published in Great Britain in 1984 by Pavilion Books.