En direct, Vidéo: Rechercher des critiques de musique classique, opéra et ballet | Julian Lloyd Webber

Having recently retired after a herniated disc weakened his bowing arm, Julian Lloyd Webber took to the stage last night at St George’s, Bristol as part of a tour he had created to tribute and reflect upon his performance career as one of the world’s leading cellists.

The European Union is not something one would normally expect to be associated with music, but their chamber orchestra is exceptional. Formed in 1981, they now have a worldwide reputation as musical ambassadors. Opening an evening of style and grace at St George’s, Bristol with Handel’s Arrival of the Queen of Sheba, the orchestra gave an air of confidence.

It is inevitable that one of the most beloved of orchestral instruments, the cello, will entice a diverse crowd of enthusiastic concertgoers – and that even in the midst of a recession, there prevails an inherent desire to depart from the self now and then for a ritualistic celebration of great music.

The history of British music reads rather like the old joke about buses: there was no composer of note in the two hundred years after Purcell, and then three came along at once. Whilst Elgar and Vaughan Williams have become household names, the third composer who came along at the end of the nineteenth century has been relegated to the dusty shelves of musical history.