Julian bemoans the poor deal for classics

7:49am Thursday 31st January 2008

How often does it happen that two brothers are world famous in the same field?

The England 1966 World Cup winners Jack and Bobby Charlton immediately spring to mind, of course; pioneering US pilots Wilbur and Orville Wright; popular American singers Phil and Don Everly; the two surviving Bee Gees, Robin and Barry Gibb; British film-makers Roy and John Boulting.

The Lloyd Webber brothers have done pretty well. Andrew, the elder brother, is the composer of super-duper hit stage musicals such as Cats, The Phantom of the Opera and Starlight Express, and the opening music, Theme and Variations, on ITV's South Bank Show.

Julian, a very occasional composer, is better known on the world's concert stages as a classical cellist of great renown whose musical influences include Jacqueline Du Pre, Paul Tortelier, Mstislav Rostropovic and Edward Elgar.

He and Andrew have only played together in public once, in 2001, at London's Royal Albert Hall, when Julian was 50. Andrew said at the time they had not played together more often because his piano playing wasn't good enough. But the brothers will be playing together again on February 24, Julian revealed.

"It's a charity do at Her Majesty's Theatre in London in aid of the Royal Brompton Hospital. That was where Ian Adam died. He was a singing teacher who worked on The Phantom of the Opera."

He added: "We'll be playing Andrew's Requiem for two cellos and piano," he said.

Their father William, who died in 1982, was director of the London College of Music and taught at the Royal College of Music. He was a composer and, famously, a man of few words. "When you can write six bars why write six pages?" he once said.

On Saturday Julian will be joining the European Chamber Orchestra at St George's Hall for a performance of Haydn's Cello Concerto in C, which lasts about 25 minutes and comes at the end of the first half.

Apparently ticket sales are going well for the first classical concert of the year.

Most musicians prefer playing live; these days when sales of CDs are plummeting, live concerts are more important than ever.

Julian said: "Basically, people expect their music to be free. Music has changed since I was in it. There was always an emphasis on recording. Now there is an emphasis on live performance - that's not always a bad thing.

"Everybody was under pressure to do three to four recordings a year - not necessarily a great thing. People thought recording would mean the end of live music. It didn't.

"I have never made much money out of recording, it was never really about that. I always made my money from live performances. In a year I will play between 50 and 100 - never more."

In a paper to the World Economic Forum in 1998, he caused a stir by appearing to attack contemporary classic music when the real target of his criticism was bigotry, the kind of bigotry which disparaged the achievements of Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven and favoured all that was experimental, modern.

"I think that time has gone. The climate has got better since 1998; now composers can write in whatever style they like," he said.

Ten years ago he drew attention to the gulf opening up between classical music and young people. On television in particular everything was pop, pop and more pop.

He said: "I think the situation has got worse. How many times would you see someone play in a brass band in Coronation Street, yet brass band music is part of the culture of that part of the country?

"Also, that concert for Princess Diana. Princess Di played quite good classical piano. Among the things that her butler Paul Burrell had was her copy of Rachmaninov's Second Piano Concerto.

"Surely in a concert that lasted as long as that lasted, five minutes could have been spared to have played some of that. I think it's wrong. Harry and William had a lot to do with the concert, but classical music is not on their radar. It's very sad."

Opera North has gone out of its way to take opera to schools, and every summer the BBC broadcasts the Promenade Concerts, many of them live.

Julian acknowledges this, but would still like to see more done to capitalise on the Government's willingness to spend more on musical education for primary school children.

• Julian Lloyd Webber is in concert at St George's Hall on Saturday, starting at 7.30pm. For tickets ring (01274) 432000.

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