Julian Bream

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Julian Bream (right), 1985

Julian Alexander Bream , OBE (born July 15, 1933 in London , † August 14, 2020 in Wiltshire ) was a British guitarist and lutenist .

Life

Bream was born in Battersea / London and grew up in a very musical family. His father, Henry George Bream, played jazz guitar, and the young Julian Bream was impressed when he heard music by Django Reinhardt . He was encouraged to learn the piano, but also the guitar. After hearing a recording by his father of Tárregas Recuerdos de la Alhambra played by Segovia , he decided to become a guitarist rather than a cricketer. On his 11th birthday, Bream received a concert guitar as a present from his father , which he learned to play as a self-taught. He won a junior piano competition at age 12, which enabled him to study piano and cello at the Royal College of Music . He gave his first guitar concert in 1947 when he was 13 years old in Cheltenham . As a teenager, he played film music as a classical guitarist.

He made his debut in 1951 at Wigmore Hall in London. After military service, during which he played electric guitar in a big band, he resumed his professional career and gave concerts all over the world for several years. The program included an annual tour of the USA and Europe.

Bream was one of the musicians who made the lute popular again in modern times. With the tenor Peter Pears , Bream gave numerous recitals as a lutenist with works by English Renaissance composers ( John Dowland , Thomas Morley , etc.) in the 1950s and 60s ; Through this collaboration and as a lute soloist, Bream brought the music of the 16th century, the Elizabethan era , to a large audience . In 1960 he founded the Julian Bream Consort , in which he played the lute, as one of the first music groups to perform early music on original instruments. (Another lutenist of the Julian Bream Consort was James Tyler from 1975). In 1963 he made music, broadcast live by the BBC, with the Indian musician Ali Akbar Khan and then toured India. In 1964 he became Officer of the British Empire .

His theme evenings were very far-reaching. He played pieces from the 17th century, works by Johann Sebastian Bach that were arranged for guitar, works by the Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos , but also popular Spanish pieces.

Many composers worked closely with him and wrote works for him, including Malcolm Arnold , Benjamin Britten , Leo Brouwer , Peter Racine Fricker , Hans Werner Henze , Humphrey Searle , Tōru Takemitsu , Michael Tippett and William Walton . One example is Britten composed in 1963 Nocturnal after John Dowland, the John Dowland's Come Heavy Sleep evolved, one of the most important pieces for classical guitar. The composer Benjamin Britten always had Bream in the back of his mind when working on Nocturnal . Another outstanding work composed for Bream are the sonatas of the Royal Winter Music by Hans Werner Henze. Bream's interpretations of the piano works Suite española by Isaac Albéniz and Danza No. 5 from the Danzas españolas by Enrique Granados are considered milestones in the history of interpretation.

He published the Faber Guitar Series with sheet music for the classical guitar in the London publishing house Faber Music . Through his numerous appearances, television and radio broadcasts, Bream became a leading figure for classical guitar music in the 20th century. In 1967 he released his album 20th Century Guitar .

In 1985, Bream produced “Guitarra! - A musical Journey through Spain ”. This film series in eight parts about the entire history of the instrument was broadcast in several countries and is also available on DVD. In these films, Bream also plays vihuela , renaissance and baroque guitars in addition to the classical guitar .

A detailed DVD was released in 2003 with My Life In Music by director Paul Bahner, which contains three hours of interviews and concerts. Graham Wade described it as "the most beautiful film about the classical guitar ever".

Julian Bream gave his last concert in 2002 in Norwich.

Works composed for Bream (in chronological order)

literature

  • Tony Palmer : Julian Bream - A Life on the Road. Macdonald & Co, London / Sydney 1982.
  • Stuart W. Button: Julian Bream - The Foundations of a musical Career. Scolar Press, Aldershot 1997.
  • Reinhard Pietsch: "I was never interested in teaching". Interview with Julian Bream (Basel, March 11, 1982). In: Guitar & Lute. Volume 4, Issue 5, 1982, pp. 244-251.
  • Hannes Fricke: The guitar myth: history, performers, great moments. Reclam, Stuttgart 2013, ISBN 978-3-15-020279-1 , pp. 200-205.

Web links

Commons : Julian Bream  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ BBC: Julian Bream: Classical guitarist dies aged 87. Retrieved August 14, 2020 .
  2. ↑ Classical Music: The great British guitarist Julian Bream has died, aged 87. Retrieved August 14, 2020 .
  3. ^ Hannes Fricke: Myth guitar: history, interpreters, great hours. Reclam, Stuttgart 2013, ISBN 978-3-15-020279-1 , pp. 200 and 213.
  4. ↑ Hannes Fricke (2013), p. 200.
  5. ↑ Hannes Fricke (2013), p. 200.
  6. ↑ Hannes Fricke (2013), p. 200 f.
  7. ↑ James Tyler: A Guide to Playing the Baroque Guitar. Indiana University Press, Bloomington and Indianapolis 2011, ISBN 978-0-253-22289-3 , p. 161.
  8. ↑ Hannes Fricke (2013), p. 201.
  9. ↑ Reinhard Froese: Benjamin Britten's NOCTURNAL and John Dowland's COME HEAVY SLEEP. In: Guitar & Lute. Volume 1, Issue 2, 1979, pp. 20-25.
  10. ↑ Hannes Fricke (2013), p. 202 f.
  11. ^ Hannes Fricke: Myth guitar: history, interpreters, great hours. Reclam, Stuttgart 2013, ISBN 978-3-15-020279-1 , p. 201 f.
  12. ↑ Hannes Fricke (2013), p. 211.
  13. ^ Reginald Smith Brindle: Variations and Interludes. Fifty years with the guitar. In: Guitar & Lute. Volume 9, Issue 1, 1987, pp. 29-45; here: p. 34.
personal data
SURNAME Bream, Julian
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Bream, Julian Alexander (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British guitarist
DATE OF BIRTH July 15, 1933
PLACE OF BIRTH London
DATE OF DEATH August 14, 2020
Place of death Wiltshire