Music review: Julian and Jiaxin Lloyd Webber - made for dancing
The City Chamber Orchestra of Hong Kong played a selection of slight English miniatures in a concert that would have made enchanting ballroom music.
If this concert had been a meal, I would have left the table still hungry. The pieces, except for one by Vivaldi, were a selection of slight English "rhapsodic miniatures" for string orchestra. The mood range was narrow, from pleasant to charming. Vivaldi was the spiciest composer on the programme.
The strings sounded delicious, with a characteristic mellow English sweetness, but after four or five pieces with similar harmony, tempo and soupy texture, the taste began to pall. Cellist Julian Lloyd Webber conducted fluidly without a baton, but I missed the precision that would have given the music character.
On the other hand, Lloyd Webber was clearly sharing music he knows well and loves, and this came through especially in music of his father William Lloyd Webber and Edward Elgar. Does anyone dance to live string orchestra any more? This concert would have made enchanting ballroom music.