Julian Bream

Guitarist whose career has contributed immeasurably to the instrument's reputation and repertoire

Julian Bream’s influence on the guitar is immense. At the outset of his career the guitar was far from a mainstream classical instrument, something Bream did much to change through his committed advocacy and remarkable playing, in many ways following in the footsteps Andrés Segovia had taken in Europe. Hearing Bream in concert would have been many British concert-goer’s introduction to guitar on the classical stage, while his appearances in television programmes have taken the instrument and its repertoire to wider audiences still.

Bream’s remarkable technical fluency is matched by a deeply thoughtful approach and beautiful tone. Modern guitar repertoire also owes an immeasurable debt to Bream – Benjamin Britten, Michael Tippett, William Walton, Malcolm Arnold, and Lennox Berkeley all wrote works for him. He has also played an important role in the revival of interest in the Elizabethan lute repertoire, particularly through his lute songs collaboration with Peter Pears, and the work of his Julian Bream Consort. 



Timeline

1933 Born in Battersea, London on July 15

1947 Recital debut, aged, 13, in Cheltenham

1950 UK debut

1951 Wigmore Hall debut

1952 Performs at Aldeburgh Festival, where he meets Britten and Pears

1955 Malcolm Arnold writes Serenade for Guitar and Strings for Bream

1956 Meets Villa Lobos; the following year he gives the UK premiere of the composer’s Guitar Concerto

1958 American debut; begins recording for RCA

1959 Forms the Julian Bream Consort, initially to perform Morley’s First Book of Consort Lessons

1963 Britten writes his Nocturnal for Bream

1964 Awarded OBE

1980 Wins Gramophone Early Music Award for Dowland Lute Songs

1984 Crashes his MG, seriously injuring his right elbow; he makes a full recovery.

1985 Awarded CBE

2002 Retires, after 55 years on the concert stage.

Essential discography

Dowland Lute works. RCA Red Seal

“Bream shapes each phrase with the utmost care, projects the rhythms with the utmost control, and persuades his instrument into a most effective range of colour”, so wrote MM when the Gramophone Award-winning recording was reissued in 1979. The composer’s music is beautifully brought to life, Bream always capturing the tone perfectly, from dark melancholy to beguiling happiness.

Read the review of Dowland - Lute works

Baroque Guitar Recital RCA

Sombre and stately, Bream approaches this collection of Bach, Sanz, Sor, Weiss and Visee with eloquence, skill and charm.

Read the review of Baroque guitar recital

 

Nocturnal EMI

This release from 1994 features the Britten Nocturnal, and reveals Bream every bit the master of the contemporary idiom as that of centuries past. A true tribute to his commitment to expanding the guitar’s repertoire as an instrument of the modern age.

Read the review of Nocturnal

 

'My Life in Music' Avie

“This film…is likely to be two (three if you include the generous extras) of the most enjoyable hours you'll spend in front of a television set,” wrote Gramophone of this fascinating, delightful DVD which went on to win a Gramophone Award. The recently-retired Bream recalls his upbringing, musical development, his career and his experiences of working with some of the greatest – or rather other greatest – musicians of the second half of the 20th  century. It also includes some wonderful performance footage.

Read the review of My Life in Music



Search for more articles about Julian Bream in the Gramophone archive

Essential discography

Search for more articles about Julian Bream in the Gramophone archive