Julian Bream - Music Feature

[Richard Tarleton]

Hi John - see also HS's Birthday Greetings thread - might be a case for merging threads? I'm catching up with the programme tomorrow!

[johnb]

Ah, thanks Richard.

I had seen that thread but hadn't looked at the contents (the title isn't exactly explicit).

[french frank]

Hi John - see also HS's Birthday Greetings thread - might be a case for merging threads? I'm catching up with the programme tomorrow!

Hornspieler's thread now merged, with johnb's title.

[Mary Chambers]

I enjoyed it very much - he's a great character as well as a great musician.

[Richard Tarleton]

Lovely programme. It could barely scratch the surface in the time allowed, and the Britten/Nocturnal theme a good one to choose. The anecdotes have been honed over the years , most will have been familiar to readers of Tony Palmer's joyous book (A Life on the Road) and the DVD My Life in Music. I enjoyed Tony Palmer's contribution to this programme. Happy Birthday from me! and happy memories of concerts over many years.

A little surprising that there was no mention of the lutanist Desmond Dupré, who held the banner for promoting the lute before JB came along.

The story of Bream and the lute would have made a great documentary in itself, only it would need to have been made many years ago as most of the protagonists are no longer with us - Desmond Dupré, Ian Harwood (founder of the Lute Society), Diana Poulton, Tom Goff the harpsichord maker who adapted Bream's first lute from a German lute-guitar, Thurston Dart whose help Bream acknowledges....

Bream aroused some hostility from the purist lute players in the early years on account of his instruments, his inauthentic technique (adapted as he says from his guitar technique) and so on. But the next generation (Rooley, North) acknowledge their debt to Bream, and everyone is older and wiser now. Quite apart from his guitar legacy, the importance of Bream's work in bringing Elizabethan music to a worldwide audience cannot be overstated.

Dupré (d. 1974) was of course a member of the first Julian Bream Consort, and he gets full credit in the Palmer book (there is a funny anecdote about the Consort on tour involving a performance by him of Saint Saens' The Swan on a viola da gamba).

[amateur51]

I thought it was an intelligent piece of programme-making, just the sort of thing that Classic FM can't/won't do and and so just the sort of thing Radio 3 should do more of.

That soon-to-be released RCA boxed set looks more and more tempting, I must say.

Happy Birthday Julian Bream!