Julian Lloyd Webber

What Julian did not realise was that this 'experience' was the best possible preparation for the concert platform as he was forced to find ways of controlling his nerves. He discovered that 'you have to lose yourself totally in the music so that the body becomes a channel through which it can flow. if the mind is given over completely to something outside the physical body, the nerves disappear. Although part of the mind has to be aware of its physical surroundings, the technical side of a performance should have been prepared before, so leaving music to take control.'
This condition can only be practised by performance itself, which in turn increases confidence. There were days when his nervousness seemed to be uncontrollable and, in time, Julian learnt one or two specific ways to deal with the problem: 'When my right hand began shaking and the bow bounced all over the strings I would immediately focus attention on my left-hand fingerings - I'd forget about the bow and it would start to behave properly again.' As for nerves before a concert he believes that they can be made to work for, rather than against you because the extra flow of adrenalin sharpens the reflexes and gives each performance a special edge.


'It was the experience of a lifetime... it is perhaps the one thing I have done which i would never have dreamed of being able to accomplish when I was a student. I do remember that I was at my lowest point emotionally. I had gone through all the heartache of my marriage breaking up only to fall out with Zohra. THings had never felt so bad but I could not allow my petty problems to interfere with recording God's beautiful music.
It is a strange truth that people's greatest professional achievements can be at the moment of their greatest personal unhappiness.