| Music Encyclopedia: Julian (Alexander) Bream |
(b Battersea, 15 July 1933). English guitarist and lutenist. After study at the RCM he made his London début in 1950, touring Europe from 1954 and the USA from 1958. He studied the Renaissance lute and in 1959 formed the Julian Bream Consort; with Peter Pears he performed Elizabethan lute-songs. His brilliant style and intense expression encouraged Britten, Walton and Henze to compose for him.
| Columbia Encyclopedia: Julian Bream |
Bibliography
See P. Balmer, dir., Julian Bream: My Life in Music (documentary film, 2003).
| Artist: Julian Bream |
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| Discography: Julian Bream |
| Wikipedia: Julian Bream |
| Julian Bream | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1933, London |
| Genres | Classical music |
| Instruments | Classical Guitar, Lute, baroque guitar |
| Labels | RCA, EMI, BMG |
Julian Bream C.B.E. (born July 15, 1933) is a British guitarist and lutenist and is one of the most distinguished classical guitarists of the 20th century. He has also been successful in renewing popular interest in the Renaissance lute.
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Bream was born in London and brought up in a musical environment. His father played jazz guitar and the young Bream was impressed by hearing the playing of Django Reinhardt.
Bream began his life-long association with the guitar by strumming along on a small gut-string Spanish guitar at a very young age to dance music on the radio. The president of the Philharmonic Society of Guitars, Dr Boris Perott, gave Bream lessons, while Bream's father became the society librarian, giving Bream access to a large collection of rare music.
On his 11th birthday, Bream was given a classical guitar by his father. He became something of a child prodigy, at 12 winning a junior exhibition award for his piano playing, enabling him to study piano and cello at the Royal College of Music. He made his debut guitar recital at Cheltenham in 1947, aged 13.
He left the Royal College of Music in 1952 and was called up into the army for National Service. He was originally drafted into the Pay Corps, but managed to sign up for the Royal Artillery Band after six months. This required him to be stationed in Woolwich, which allowed him to moonlight regularly with the guitar in London.
After three and a half years in the army, he took any musical jobs that came his way, including background music for radio plays and films. Commercial film, recording session and work for the BBC were important to Bream throughout the 50s and the early 60s.
In the years after national service, Bream pursued a busy career playing around the world, including annual tours in the U.S. and Europe for several years. He played part of a recital at the Wigmore Hall on the lute in 1952 and since has done much to bring music written for the instrument to light. 1960 saw the formation of the Julian Bream Consort, a period-instrument ensemble with Bream as lutenist. The consort led a great revival of interest in the music of the Elizabethan era. His first European tours took place in 1954 and 1955, and were followed by extensive touring in North America (beginning in 1958), the Far East, India, Australia, the Pacific Islands and other parts of the world.
In addition to master-classes given in Canada and the USA, Bream has also conducted an international summer school in Wiltshire, England.
Bream has recorded extensively for RCA and EMI Classics. These recordings have won him several awards, including four Grammy Awards, two for Best Chamber Music Performance and two for Best Classical Performance.[1] RCA also released The Ultimate Guitar Collection, a multi-CD set commemorating his birthday in 1993. From the beginning of the 1990's Julian Bream continued his recording career with EMI Classics, featuring music by J.S. Bach, a Concerto album (with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and Sir Simon Rattle), and discs devoted to contemporary works and guitar sonatas.
In 1984 Bream’s arm was seriously injured in a car accident. It cost him great effort to regain his previous technical ability.
Bream's recitals are wide-ranging, including transcriptions from the 17th century, many pieces by Johann Sebastian Bach arranged for guitar, popular Spanish pieces, and contemporary music, much for which he was the inspiration. He has stated that he has been influenced by the styles of Andrés Segovia and Francisco Tárrega.
Many composers have worked with Bream, and among those who dedicated pieces to him are Malcolm Arnold, Richard Rodney Bennett, Benjamin Britten, Leo Brouwer, Peter Racine Fricker, Hans Werner Henze, Humphrey Searle, Tōru Takemitsu, Michael Tippett and William Walton. Britten's Nocturnal is one of the most famous pieces in the classical guitar repertoire and was written with Bream specifically in mind. It is an unusual set of variations on John Dowland's Come Heavy Sleep (which is played in its original form at the close of the piece).
Bream has also taken part in many collaborations, including work with Peter Pears on Elizabethan music for lute and voice, and three records of guitar duets with John Williams.
Bream's playing can be characterized as virtuosic and highly expressive, with an eye for details, and with strong use of contrasting timbres.
The above, along with his many radio and television appearances, have made Bream an important ambassador for the classical guitar.
A highly successful biographical film, "A Life in the Country", was first shown on BBC TV in 1976. Bream also presented a series of four master-classes guitarists on BBC TV. BBC TV has presented a programme about Julian Bream's life as a concert guitarist. In 1984 he made eight films on location in Spain for Channel 4 exploring historical perspectives of Spanish guitar music.
The 2003 DVD video profile Julian Bream: My Life In Music contains three hours of interview and performance. It has been declared by Graham Wade "the finest film contribution ever to the classic guitar." His series Guitarra! was made for British television and charts a journey across Spain.
Despite his importance as a classical guitarist, however, many of his RCA Records recordings (including the series of 20th century guitar music) are currently out of print.
Bream has stated that even though he had some 'sessions' with Segovia, he never really studied with him — Bream also does not exclusively hold his right-hand fingers at right angles to the strings, but has stated that he uses a less rigid hand position for reasons of tonal variety.[2]
Bream has for over 40 years lived in a Georgian farmhouse at Semley in Wiltshire[3] .
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