Julian Bream

Bream was born in Battersea, London, and brought up in a musical environment in Hampton. Bream described his parents as both "conventional suburban", but in another way "very unusual". His father was a commercial artist, with an "extraordinary talent for drawing" and a "natural musician" according to Bream. Bream would lie under the piano in "ecstasy" when his father played. His mother, of Scottish descent, was a very beautiful woman who was often, according to Bream, "not always there" mentally and did not like music, but was a warm-hearted person.[4] His grandmother owned a pub in Battersea, and Bream spent much time there during his youth. His father played jazz guitar and the young Bream was impressed by the playing of Django Reinhardt; he would later call his dog "Django".[4]

Bream began his lifelong association with the guitar by strumming along on his father's jazz guitar at an early age to dance music on the radio. He became frustrated with his lack of knowledge of harmony, so read instruction books by Eddie Lang to teach himself.[4] His father taught him the basics. The president of the Philharmonic Society of Guitars, Dr Boris Perott, gave Bream further lessons, while his father became the society librarian, giving young Bream access to a large collection of rare music.

On his 11th birthday, Bream was given a small gut-strung Spanish 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 composition at the Royal College of Music.[5] Aged 13, he made his debut guitar recital at Cheltenham on 17 February 1947;[6] in 1951, he debuted at Wigmore Hall.[5]

Leaving the RCM in 1952, Bream was called up into the army for national service.[5] 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 in London with the guitar.[5]

After two years in the army, he took any musical jobs that came his way, including background music for radio plays and films. Commercial film, recording sessions and work for the BBC were important to Bream throughout the 1950s and the early 1960s.

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.[7]

Bream pursued a busy career playing around the world. His first European tours took place in 1954 and 1955, followed (beginning in 1958) by extensive touring in the Far East, India, Australia, the Pacific Islands and many other parts of the world. Bream performed for the Peabody Mason Concert series in Boston, first solo, in 1959, and later with the US debut of his Consort.[8]

In addition to master classes given in North America, Bream has conducted an international summer school in Wiltshire, England.

Bream has recorded extensively for RCA Victor 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.[9] RCA also released The Ultimate Guitar Collection, a multi-CD set commemorating his birthday in 1993.

From the beginning of the 1990s Julian Bream continued his recording career with EMI Classics, featuring music by Johann Sebastian Bach, a Concerto album (with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and Sir Simon Rattle), and discs devoted to contemporary works and guitar sonatas.

Despite his importance as a classical guitarist, however, many of his RCA recordings (including the series of 20th-century guitar music) were out of print for several years. In 2011, RCA released My Favorite Albums, a 10-CD set of albums chosen by Julian Bream himself. In 2013, RCA issued Julian Bream: The Complete RCA Album Collection, a 40-CD set which also includes two DVDs with The Lively Arts – Julian Bream: A Life in the Country, the 1976 BBC film; and four BBC shows: Omnibus: Anniversary of Sir William Walton [1982], The Julian Bream Consort (1961), Monitor – Film Profile of Julian Bream [1962], and The Julian Bream Consort (1964).

A film, A Life in the Country, was first shown on BBC TV in 1976. In it, the narrator and Bream discuss his beginnings and his life as a concert guitarist. Bream also presented a series of four master-classes for guitarists on BBC TV.

In 1984 he made eight film segments on location in Spain for Channel 4. The collection of segments ¡Guitarra! A Musical Journey Through Spain explored historical perspectives of Spanish guitar music.

The 2003 DVD video profile Julian Bream: My Life in Music contains three hours of interviews and performances. It has been declared by Graham Wade "the finest film contribution ever to the classic guitar" and it became "Gramophone DVD of the year".

Bream (right) in Liechtenstein in 1985

In 1984, Bream's right arm was seriously injured in a car accident.[3]

In 1991, BBC Radio and TV broadcast Bream's BBC Prom performance of Malcolm Arnold's Guitar Concerto. He also participated in a recital and concerto performances of works by Tōru Takemitsu at the Japan Festival in London with the London Symphony Orchestra.

During the 1992–93 season he performed on two occasions at the Wigmore Hall – at their Gala Re-opening Festival, and at a special concert celebrating his 60th birthday. In the same period, he toured the Far East, visiting Hong Kong, Taiwan, Korea and Japan, and performed the premiere of Leo Brouwer's arrangement for guitar and orchestra of Albéniz's Iberia at the Proms. In 1994 Bream made debuts in both Turkey and Israel to great acclaim, and the following year played for the soundtrack to the Hollywood film Don Juan DeMarco.

In 1997, in celebration of the 50th anniversary of his debut, he performed a recital at Cheltenham Town Hall. A few weeks later, the BBC dedicated a television tribute This Is Your Life programme to Bream, filmed after a commemorative concert at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, London.

Other engagements around that time included a gala solo performance at the Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool; a Kosovo Aid concert at St. John's, Smith Square, London, with the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields; recitals at the Snape Proms, Aldeburgh, and at the Norfolk and Norwich Festival; and a tour of National Trust properties in summer and autumn 2000.

In November 2001 he gave an anniversary recital at Wigmore Hall, celebrating 50 years since his debut there in 1951. His final recital was at Maddermarket Theatre, Norwich on 6 May 2002.[6]

Bream's recitals are wide-ranging, including transcriptions from the 17th century, many pieces by Bach arranged for guitar, popular Spanish pieces, and contemporary music, for much of which he was the inspiration. He has stated that he has been influenced by the styles of Andrés Segovia and Francisco Tárrega. Bream has said that he had some "sessions" with Segovia but did not actually study with him. Segovia provided a personal endorsement and scholarship request to assist Bream in taking further formal music studies.[10]

Bream's playing can be characterised as virtuosic and highly expressive, with an eye for details, and with strong use of contrasting timbres. He does not consistently hold his right-hand fingers at right angles to the strings, but uses a less rigid hand position for tonal variety.[11]

Bream met Igor Stravinsky in Toronto, Canada in 1965. He tried unsuccessfully to persuade the composer to write a composition for the lute and played a pavane by Dowland for him. The meeting between Bream and Stravinsky, including Bream's impromptu playing, was filmed by the National Film Board of Canada in making a documentary about the composer.[12]

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, Toru Takemitsu, Michael Tippett, William Walton and Peter Maxwell Davies. Britten's Nocturnal is one of the most famous pieces in the classical guitar repertoire and was written with Bream specifically in mind.[13] 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.

In 1964, Bream was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for services to music and in 1985 he was promoted to Commander of the Order of the British Empire. He holds Honorary Doctorates from the Universities of Surrey (1968) and Leeds (1984). In 1976 he was presented with the Villa-Lobos Gold Medal by the composer's widow. He is an Honorary Member of the Royal Academy of Music (1966) and is a Fellow of Royal College of Music (1981) and Royal Northern College of Music (1983). In 1988 he became an Honorary Member of the Royal Philharmonic Society and was presented with the Royal Philharmonic Society Instrumentalist's Award in 1996.

Bream is keen on the game of cricket[5] and is a member of the MCC.

He lived for over forty years at Semley, Wiltshire, at first dividing his time between there and Chiswick, London, then moving permanently to a Georgian farmhouse in 1966, living there until 2008.[14] In 2013 he lived in a smaller house at Donhead St Andrew, Wiltshire.[3]

His first wife was Margaret, daughter of the writer Henry Williamson,[15] with whom he adopted a son; in 1980, he married Isabel Sanchez.[16]

• Reginald Smith Brindle Nocturne for Guitar Solo (1946)
• Lennox Berkeley Sonatina, op. 52, no. 1 (1957)
• Benjamin Britten Songs from the Chinese for high voice and guitar, Op. 58 (1957)
• Hans Werner Henze Drei Tentos (Kammermusic 1958)
• Denis ApIvor Variations for Guitar, Op. 29 (1958)
• 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 Ballade-Phantasy (1968)
• Peter Racine Fricker Paseo (1969)
• Reginald Smith Brindle Variants on two themes of J. S. Bach (1970)
• Richard Rodney Bennett Guitar Concerto (1970)
• Malcolm Arnold Fantasy, op. 107 (1971)
• Alan Rawsthorne Elegy (1971)
• William Walton Five Bagatelles (1972)
• Humphrey Searle Five (1974)
• Lennox Berkeley Guitar Concerto, Op. 88 (1974)
• Hans Werner Henze Royal Winter Music (first sonata, 1976)
• Giles Swayne Suite, Op. 21 (1976)
• Peter Maxwell Davies Hill Runes (1981)
• Michael Berkeley Sonata in One Movement (1982)
• Richard Rodney Bennett Sonata (1983)
• Michael Tippett The Blue Guitar (1984)
• Giles Swayne Solo for Guitar (1986)
• Leo Brouwer Concerto elegiaco (Guitar Concerto No. 3) (1986)
• Toru Takemitsu All in Twilight (1987)
• Leo Brouwer Sonata (1990)
• Peter Maxwell Davies Sonata (1990)
• Toru Takemitsu Muir Woods (In the Woods) (1996)
• Harrison Birtwistle Construction with Guitar Player: Beyond the White Hand (2013) (Commissioned by the Julian Bream Trust)
• Leo Brouwer Ars Combinatoria (Sonata No. 5) (2013) (Commissioned by the Julian Bream Trust)

• 1964: Officer of the Order of the British Empire
• 1964: Grammy Award for Best Chamber Music Performance at the Grammy Awards of 1964 for Evening of Elizabethan Music performed by the Julian Bream Consort
• 1966: Honorary Member of the Royal Academy of Music
• 1967: Grammy Award for Best Classical Performance – Instrumental Soloist or Soloists (with or without orchestra) at the Grammy Awards of 1967 for Baroque Guitar (Works of Bach, Sanz, Weiss, etc.)
• 1968: Honorary Doctorate from the University of Surrey
• 1968: Edison Award
• 1972: Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Soloist(s) Performance (with orchestra) at the Grammy Awards of 1972 for André Previn (conductor), Julian Bream & the London Symphony Orchestra for Villa-Lobos: Concerto for Guitar
• 1972–73: Edison Award
• 1973: Grammy Award for Best Chamber Music Performance at the Grammy Awards of 1973 for Julian Bream & John Williams for Julian and John (Works by Lawes, Carulli, Albéniz, Granados)
• 1981: Fellowship of the Royal College of Music
• 1983: Fellowship of the Royal Northern College of Music
• 1984: Honorary Doctorate from the University of Leeds
• 1985: Commander of the Order of the British Empire
• 1988: Honorary Member of the Royal Philharmonic Society
• 1996: Royal Philharmonic Society Instrumentalist's Award
• 1999: Doctor of Philosophy from London Guildhall University
• 2009: Honorary Doctorate from the Open University
• 2013: Gramophone Classical Music Awards – Lifetime Achievement[17][18]

Articles

• Peter Sensier & Graham Wade. "Bream, Julian (Alexander)" in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians MacMillan, 2001

Books

• Stuart W. Button, Julian Bream, the Foundations of a Musical Career, Scolar Press, 1997 (reissued by Bold Strummer Ltd, 2006. ISBN 1-57784-067-4)
• Graham Wade, The Art of Julian Bream, Ashley Mark Publishing Company, 2008
• Julian Bream: a Life on the Road. London: Macdonald, 1982. ISBN 0-356-07880-9. Text by Tony Palmer, photographs by Daniel Meadows, includes discography (pp. 204–16)

• Julian Bream's myspace page
• Biography (Hazard Chase)
• Some photos of LP covers (Oviatt Library Digital Collections)
• McCarthy, James (January 2007). "Julian Bream interview". Gramophone. Retrieved 18 May 2020.