![]() But what if he kicks it over, buggers it up? “I’m in the shit,” he whispers. Lloyd Webber insists the instrument is safe where it is. Lloyd Webber’s celebrated “Barjansky” Stradivarius cello, dating from 1690 and worth more money than it is polite to discuss, is propped on the floor of the cosy sitting room. The three-bedroom house has low ceilings and big beams a studied silence haunts the downstairs room where Lloyd Webber and his wife, also a highly accomplished cellist, practise, practise and then practise again. The feeling chez Jules and Jiaxin is homely. Socks and a pair of undies are pegged out on a drying rack inside the front door. Lloyd Webber does so and is momentarily lost.ĭespite his connections and a glowing concert and recording career (he’s played with everyone from Stéphane Grappelli to Sir Elton John), there are no arty pretensions or airs and graces in the musician’s patch of rural Gloucestershire, a few miles from the fruit scone and Barbour ghetto of Chipping Campden. The photographer tells them to look into each other’s eyes for a shot. ![]() Posing for pictures in the sunlit garden, he lovingly strokes her back. His 36-year-old wife, Jiaxin, eight months pregnant when we meet, is adorable and Lloyd Webber clearly adores her. He certainly looks like a doyen of classical music, but equally, and in the nicest possible way, he could be a well-preserved 70s prog rocker. In his crumpled blue linen trousers and short-sleeved shirt, he exudes a genuine, understated warmth. He has piercing, cornflower blue eyes, an amiable presence and a wickedly deadpan sense of humour. It’s quite a jolt to meet him in the flesh. If you don’t know anything about British classical musicians, you know Julian Lloyd Webber – the high-brow one with the pale complexion, calm smile and slightly mad hair. He has got the hugely famous older brother, musical theatre composer Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber, and is world-renowned in his own right for his prowess with a cello. “If I’ve been really worried about learning a new piece of music, I’ve come up here for two or three days and just gone solely at it, the problems seem to get solved and that is great.” There seem to be more hours in the day than in London,” he says. Very few people have my phone number here. “For me, this is an ideal place to really concentrate on getting on with work. Lloyd Webber bought it 21 years ago – “We are almost becoming locals,” he says – and loves the place. The Cotswold retreat is a divine spot, with a quintessential English country garden. There is a second home, in Chelsea, and the plan is for Jiaxin to give birth in London, where the hospital is minutes away, not a half an hour cross-country drive to Cheltenham. We are sitting in the kitchen of the couple’s honey-coloured cottage near Chipping Campden. You can’t just stop everything waiting for the baby coming.” Jiaxin adds in a calm voice: “I think he should do it. ![]() “The plan will be I will never have played the Elgar so fast in my life and I’ll be straight down the motorway,” says Lloyd Webber laughing. I ask if there is a back-up a plan in case Lloyd Webber Jnr makes an appearance while father is on stage. The concerts were booked well before the child was “a twinkle the eye.” Lloyd Webber insists all will be fine with the Birmingham concert and Jiaxin’s parents are due to arrive in the UK to help out.īut he adds: “If the baby really does come that day, it will be rather strange.” “It’s not great, to be honest,” says Lloyd Webber. ![]() The musician is convinced the baby will arrive early, but concedes that doesn’t really help because he has got concerts on June 3 and 4. Lloyd Webber, at the age of 60, is about to become a father for the second time and it just so happens that his lovely Chinese-born wife, Jiaxin Cheng, is due to give birth on the same day. Timing is crucial for an elite musician and it will need to be impeccable at the afternoon recital. Julian Lloyd Webber is due to play one of his favourite pieces at Birmingham Town Hall on June 8. It may turn out to be the fastest public performance of Elgar’s Cello Concerto. Acclaimed cellist Julian Lloyd Webber talks to Richard McComb about becoming a father at 60 – but not becoming a house-husband. ![]()
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