Julian's legacy is that he retrieved the lute from centuries of obscurity. By so doing he stimulated an appreciation of its tonal and expressive qualities and the genius of those who wrote for it. Thank you for keeping this legacy alive.
@@banjoboy01 Poulton kept the lute viable for those to continue; Bream popularized the instrument like no one else. And I mean that literally - I know several players and teachers who acknowledge their debt to him and his recordings and performances, myself included. Poulton wasn't known for recordings, she is known especially for her scholarship and Bream readily credited her for that. And in later years, Bream tried to modify his technique to be being a little less "guilutenist" - his realized his career as a guitarist interfered with his lute technique. But even that is a result of years of research and applied practice. Brendan Acker is a great person to talk with about the challenges of playing both instrument families and he's here on the Tube.
@@banjoboy01 in bream's time old music was being rediscovered and the playing should be appreciated on its own, not in terms of the latest criteria. karl richter is a similar example in orchestra, who brought bach to the following generation
Julian Bream's performances are so great and always give me strength to play music. It shows me that he was not only a very good guitarist or lute player, but also a very great musician. Thank you very much, Mr. Bream!
... you can imagine Julian Bream doing that, he had very acute hearing (he remembers being assaulted by the radio when young) and this gift shines through the wonderful phrasing and dynamics of his playing.
Bream fue pura musicalidad, para mi fue más allá de la técnica, más allá de todo lo estilístico, un hombre estrenado completamente a la música, un verdadero genio...
Too true! I saw Bream perform both on the lute and guitar. Always gave a good concert. As you infer, Julian Bream was a legend that bought the lute back from the dead. Anyway there are many ways in which to play the lute, as I found out. A beautiful instrument though!
Too many of those purists are not performing lutenists or they wouldn't be saying it. Bream himself knew that his technique was a hybrid compromise and said so. Having met him and and talked with him at length, I miss him.
Even Paul O’Dette respects Bream and even said that when he was a guitar student he struggled to play those pieces and discovered the lute when he bought a vinyle album to hear how those pieces sounded on a lute. And the player was of course Julian Bream…
No other classical guitarist or lutenist can compare with the skill and mastership that Bream brings to his playing. I am always making the comparison when listening to others, great as they are...
Thanks! A couple of these were on youtube a couple of years ago as individual tracks, but then disappeared, so, cool to see and hear them again. Makes me wonder though how many more treasures probably lie on the shelves of the BBC...
Ayant découvert Alfred Deller lors d'une émission hommage à France inter à l'occasion de son décès en 1979 je n'ai cessé d'admirer la musique ancienne anglaise et tous les instruments d'époque.Une telle vidéo me rend très nostalgique . Merci à tous ces grds interprètes des années 80 et 90 , qui sont de loin devenus une famille de substitution .Merci à eux et aux éditeurs de cds , preneurs de son , etc...
He played great! He was fantastic! It's sad that they cut all of her parts out, but she was just filler... We just wanted his performance... Sorry, lady...
The lady in the video is Peggy Ashcroft. In the original programme she was reading passages from Shakespeare, in between the performances by Julian Bream.
great to have this! Bream on his 10-course marvellous Breton lute. I'm sorry lady Ashcroft's recordings are not there. They have an album together, she is austounding. Is there any way to find this video? Thanks so much for posting!
I make absolutely no claim to being a lutenist, yet I *do* teach music’s “sister-art,” POETRY, from the Renaissance and Baroque periods, and am familiar with much of the great lute compositions from the late fifteenth and early sixteenth to the lute accompaniments of the late Baroque and early 18th century. I also have a decent library of lute music…. I have to say, martyheresniak5203, that though I have no doubt at all that you play this remarkable instrument beautifully, and I *believe* you when you claim to be familiar with “contemporary performance styles” on the lute and related instruments such as the oud and theorbo, *I* don’t hear any “stiltedness,” or “pedantic/didactic quality to Bream’s playing. Is it that Bream always did his absolute best-as in his charming performance of The Earl of Essex’s Galliard for Queen Elizabeth I--does what you are calling the “pedantic” quality of his playing inhere within his determination to capture the spirit of the age from which the composition he is performing hails? Or does it have to do with Bream’s seeming at times quite “textual,” whereas lute performances were originally both “notational” *and* improvisational, in which the lutenist “realised” chordal accompaniments? I was simply intrigued by your comment--as I have always been an admirer of Bream, and had never heard anyone lay the charge of being “pedantic” at his door before. Would it be possible for you to say more with concrete examples to illustrate your point, possibly?
@@MrMalvolio29 I meant exactly what I said. Stilted as in his rhythms are preciously exact and pedantic as in I feel nothing from his playing: it seems very rote, this-is-how-it-goes, let-me-show-you-how dry. I much prefer the more recent interpretations of Smith or more so Dunford. Bream brought the lute out of historical curiosity and knocked the dust off, but more recent players have oiled the wood and made it all sound much less creaky.
I don't have the whole programme, however they also made a similar CD together called Two Loves. You may be able to find a used copy, or you can get it as a download from Prestomusic.
Julian said that his lute playing method was 'politically incorrect'. I could hear his lute, I have been to politically correct lute concerts. I think releasing the string with a short nail may have its advantages. How do nylon gut strings sound compared to pure gut strings? I always wanted to get a guitar that was scaled the same as an 11 string lute.