PROGRAMME

Delius The Walk to the Paradise Garden
Elgar Chason de Matin
Lloyd Webber Phantasia
Elgar 'Enigma' Variations

BIOGRAPHY - Royal Philharmonic Orchestra

Founded in 1946 by Sir Thomas Beecham, with his vision of bringing world-class performances of the greatest music written to the length of the country, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra continues to maintain Beecham's legacy by offering audiences in the UK and abroad the highest possible standards of music-making, accompanied by some of the most acclaimed artists of the day. Read More...

BIOGRAPHY - Julian Lloyd Webber - Cello

Widely regarded as one of the most creative musicians of his generation, Julian Lloyd Webber was a scholar at the Royal College of Music and completed his studies in Geneva with the renowned French cellist, Pierre Fournier. Since then he has collaborated with an extraordinary array of musicians from Yehudi Menuhin, Lorin Maazel, Neville Marriner and Georg Solti to Stephane Grappelli, Elton John and Cleo Laine.

Julian has made many outstanding recordings including his Brit-Award winning Elgar Concerto conducted by Yehudi Menuhin (chosen as the finest ever version by BBC Music Magazine) the Dvorák Concerto with Vaclav Neumann and the Czech Philharmonic, Tchaikovsky's Rococo Variations with the London Symphony under Maxim Shostakovich and a coupling of Britten's Cello Symphony and Walton's Concerto with Sir Neville Marriner and the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, which was described by Gramophone magazine as "beyond any rival". Julian has also recorded several highly successful CD's of short pieces for Universal Classics including Made in England, Cello Moods and Cradle Song: "It would be difficult to find better performances of this kind of repertoire anywhere on records of today or yesterday" - Gramophone.

Julian has given more than fifty works their premiere recordings and has inspired new compositions for cello from composers as diverse as Malcolm Arnold and Joaquin Rodrigo to James MacMillan and Philip Glass. Recent concert performances have included three further works composed for Julian - Michael Nyman's Double Concerto for Cello and Saxophone on BBC Television, Gavin Bryars' Concerto in Suntory Hall, Tokyo and Philip Glass's Concerto at the Beijing International Festival. Julian's recording of the Glass concerto with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic conducted by Gerard Schwarz was released on the Orange Mountain label in September 2004.

Julian's most recent recordings include Phantasia for EMI Classics, based on Andrew Lloyd Webber's Phantom of the Opera and featuring violinist Sarah Chang. Another new EMI disc, Unexpected Songs, was released in 2006. Despite his crowded schedule, Julian finds the time to write a monthly column on music and musicians for the Daily Telegraph

Julian Lloyd Webber plays the 'Barjansky' Stradivarius cello of c. 1690.

www.julianlloydwebber.com

BIOGRAPHY - Chloë Hanslip - Violin

20 year old British violinist Chloë Hanslip is already an established international artist of distinction. Her recent recording for Naxos, of the John Adams Violin Concerto with the RPO under Leonard Slatkin, entered the UK Classical Charts at number 2, and Phillip Clark, writing in Gramophone, concluded that 'Playing like this should secure Chloë Hanslip's reputation for life'. Two earlier CDs with the London Symphony Orchestra for Warner Classics, won her, respectively, the German 'Echo Klassik Award for Best Newcomer' in 2002, and 'Young British Classical Performer' at the Classical BRITS 2003. This year she has recorded discs of concerti by Godard and recital pieces by Bazzini , also for Naxos.

Chloë made her BBC Proms debut in 2002, her US concerto debut in 2003, and has since performed in major venues throughout the world with leading orchestras and conductors, including Mariss Jansons, Leonard Slatkin, Leif Segerstam, Libor Pešek, Tamás Vásáry, and Raymond Lepard. Forthcoming highlights include invitations to participate in the prestigious Gstaad and Lockenhaus Festivals, as well as concerts with the Royal Philharmonic under Vasilly Petrenko, l'Orchestra della RAI Torino under Jeffrey Tate, and Cincinnati Symphony under Paavo Järvi.

Chloë's teachers have included Natasha Boyarskaya, Zakhar Bron, who was her mentor for ten years, Salvatore Accardo, and Gerhard Schulz of the Alban Berg Quartet. At ten, she appeared as the 'infant prodigy violinist' in Ralph Fiennes' film adaptation of Pushkin's 'Evgeny Onegin', and made a significant contribution to Maxim Vengerov's Master Class, shown on Channel 4 as part of the documentary 'Playing by Heart'.

www.chloehanslip.com