Julian Bream, who died a couple of weeks ago aged 87, was the first internationally recognised British classical guitarist. With a career spanning 50 years, Bream's influence on both the guitar, and lute, and the 20th Century repertoire has been enormous - with many composers, such as Malcolm Arnold, Peter Maxwell Davies, Benjamin Britten, William Walton and Michael Tippett writing music for him.
Surprisingly, Bream was self taught on the guitar. He had said "All my technique - on the guitar, the lute, the baroque guitar - was totally homemade. I've never really been taught how to play these plucked instruments. Therefore, I have an ideal of sound in my head and I get as near as I can to realising that sound. So I use any stroke or method of playing that gives me satisfaction first, that also realises my ambition in matters of sound and articulation".
In 2013 Bream was awarded a Gramophone Lifetime Achievement award, which was accompanied by this this interview.
One of the 20th Century's most famous guitar concertos was recorded by Julian Bream in 1975. Joaquin Rodrigo's Concierto de Aranjuez was written in 1939, and its Adagio second movement is one of the most recognisable pieces of guitar music, and one that's been covered by a great many artists. To name but two examples in jazz - Miles Davis (with arranger Gil Evans) used it on his Sketches of Spain album, and guitarist Jim Hall with trumpeter Chet Baker and altoist Paul Desmond made a 19 minute track with it on his album Concierto (which I posted a while ago).
On this RCA disc, the Rodrigo concerto is accompanied by a (then) new piece dedicated to Julian Bream by Sir Lennox Berkeley (which I plan to post in the near future). John Eliot Gardiner - known mostly for performances of baroque music - conducts the Monteverdi Orchestra.
Cartridge: Soundsmith Zephyr MIMC Star
Phono amp: Graham Slee Accession MC
Turntable: CTC Classic 301 with SME M2-12R
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