‘Take a Bow’ is the brand new personally selected retrospective collection from Julian Lloyd Webber, released by Decca Classics to mark the British cellist’s 75th birthday. The celebratory double album features a new composition by Lloyd Webber for cello and orchestra, titled ‘Jasmine’, and named after his daughter, alongside recordings from his catalogue stretching back over 40 years. ‘Jasmine’ marks a return to the recording studio for the first time in 12 years.

The album and new music coincide with the release of his autobiography, ‘Bows and Arrows’ (Biteback Publishing) and a return to the concert platform – again, for the first time in 12 years – with Lloyd Webber hosting and expecting to perform in a special birthday concert on 14 April at London’s Wigmore Hall, in aid of music education charity Music Masters.

Recording and performing in the concert hall once again follows Lloyd Webber’s forced retirement in April 2014 due to injury. ‘Jasmine’, composed and performed by Lloyd Webber, accompanied by the award-winning Orchestra of the Swan, has strong personal and emotional meaning for the cellist, and was the impetus needed for him to pick up the cello and confront the challenge of playing again.

Artists

Julian Lloyd Webber (cello, recordingarranger), Secret Garden, Vangelis (synthesizer), David Cullen (synthesizer), Rod Argent (piano, synthesizer), Jon Hiseman (drumkit), Paul Keogh (guitar), John Mole (bassguitar), Barbara Thompson (flute, saxophone), Pamela Chowhan (recordingarranger, keyboard), Elton John (vocalist), The Arcadian Ensemble (strings), Jiaxin Cheng (cello), Orchestra of the Swan, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, English Chamber Orchestra, Irish National Symphony Orchestra, The RTÉ Concert Orchestra, Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, James Judd, Nicholas Cleobury, Steven Mercurio, Barry Wordsworth, Yehudi Menuhin, Václav Neumann, Maxim Shostakovich, John Wilson