Julian Bream (1933-2020)

LATE TUESDAY UPDATE: After I attempted some fixing and updating and amplifying of this post, which I'd thought had otherwise come out surprisingly okay, I discovered that important parts of it had gotten mangled or simply lost. So I went back in and repaired it as best I could, and while I was at it attempted some additional fixing and updating and amplifying. Goodness only knows what more has gone wrong now. Note: We've now got our own Django Reinhardt audio clip! -- Ken


Julian plays one of his Spanish staples, "Sevilla" from Isaac Albéniz's Suite española. (You can hear "Granada" here.)

by Ken

We'll be back to Beethoven next week, I expect. But since I got word that Julian Bream died at home in Wiltshire on August 14 at 87, it's been on my mind, and even though I'm poorly equipped for a proper commemoration, as I'll explain in a bit, I decided I didn't want to let another week go by without doing something.

During my college years (I'm horrified to have to note that we're talking about more than 50 years ago) Julian came to town and gave a recital that I imagine was very much like countless other recitals he gave in countless other places: He played the guitar, played the lute, and talked. My goodness, did he talk! His knowledge and passion reached out directly and grabbed at least this audience member, and I was hooked. As I must have mentioned here before, I'm not exactly a guitar enthusiast -- I don't mind it, but I don't go out of my way to hear it, except in the hands of a select few guitarists, starting with the greatest of them all, the Spaniard Andrès Segovia, and continuing with the other master, Julian B. (Whenever I say this, I also like to put in a good word for the guitar-playing Romero I know best, Angel R.)


SO YOU WANT TO PLAY A FUGUE -- ON A GUITAR?

Here's a case in point. Playing Bach on the guitar had been one of Segovia's great passions, and it became one of Julian's too. If you can play a fugue on a violin, why not on a guitar?




THE DIFFERENCE FOR ME BETWEEN ANDRÈS AND
JULIAN (AND ANGEL) vs. MOST OTHER GUITARISTS . . .