Julian Bream
Julian Bream, OBE, ( born July 15, 1933, London ) is a British guitarist and lutenist.
Life
Bream grew up in a very musical family. His father played jazz guitar and the young Bream was impressed when he heard the music of Django Reinhardt. It was suggested that the piano, but also to learn guitar. On his 11th birthday, Bream was given by his father, a classical guitar as a present. He won to study music at age 12 a junior competition on the piano, which enabled him, piano and cello at the Royal College. His first concert with the guitar, he was 13 years old in 1947 in Cheltenham.
He made his debut in 1951 in the Wigmore Hall in London. After his military service, he started his professional career on again for a few years and gave concerts all over the world. The program included an annual tour of the USA and Europe.
With the tenor Peter Pears Bream as lutenist was in the 1950s and 1960s, numerous recitals with works of English Renaissance composer ( John Dowland, Thomas Morley, etc.) through this collaboration and as a soloist According Bream has a large audience, the music of the 16th century, Elizabethan times brought home. In 1960 he founded the Julian Bream Consort, in which he played the lute. In 1964 he was Officer of the British Empire.
His theme nights were very far-reaching. He played pieces from the 17th century, works by Johann Sebastian Bach, which were arranged for guitar, works of Brazilian composer Heitor Villa -Lobos, but also popular Spanish pieces.
Many composers worked closely with him and wrote him works on the body, including Malcolm Arnold, Benjamin Britten, Leo Brouwer, Peter Racine Fricker, Hans Werner Henze, Humphrey Searle, Tōru Takemitsu, Michael Tippett and William Walton. An example is Nocturnal, the John Dowland's Come Heavy Sleep evolving, one of the most famous pieces for classical guitar. The composer Benjamin Britten had. During his work on Nocturnal always Bream in mind
Through his numerous appearances, television and radio broadcasts Bream became a leading figure of classical guitar music in the 20th century.
For television, Bream produced in 1985 " Guitarra! - A Musical Journey through Spain ". This film series in eight parts over the entire history of the instrument was sent in several countries and is also available on DVD. In these films Bream plays except the classical guitar and vihuela, Renaissance and Baroque guitar.
A detailed DVD was released in 2003 with My Life In Music, which includes three hours of interviews and concerts. Graham Wade called it " the finest film contribution ever to the classic guitar ."
For Bream composed works ( in chronological order )
- Reginald Smith Brindle El Polyphemus de Oro (1956 )
- Lennox Berkeley Sonatina, op 52, no 1 (1957 )
- Tristram Cary Sonata (1959 )
- Malcolm Arnold Concerto for Guitar and Chamber Orchestra, op 67 (1959 )
- Benjamin Britten Nocturnal after John Dowland, Op 70 (1963 )
- Richard Rodney Bennett Impromptus (1968 )
- Tom Eastwood ballad Phantasy (1968 )
- Peter Racine Fricker Paseo (1969 )
- Reginald Smith Brindle Variants on two themes of JS Bach ( 1970)
- Malcolm Arnold Fantasy, Op 107 (1971)
- Alan Rawsthorne Elegy (1971 )
- William Walton Five Bagatelles (1972 )
- Hans Werner Henze Royal Winter Music (first sonata, 1976)
- Giles Swayne Suite ( 1976)
- Peter Maxwell Davies Hill Runes (1981 )
- Michael Berkeley Sonata in One Movement (1982 )
- Tōru Takemitsu All in Twilight (1987 )
- Leo Brouwer Sonata (1990 )