Search - Fernando Sor, Joaquin Turina, Manuel de Falla :: Julian Bream Plays Spanish Guitar Music

Young julian

Thomas P. Fletcher | Atlanta, GA USA | 04/18/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is Julian Bream in his early twenties at the beginning of his career (and he was extremely handsome back then, giving Parkening a run for his money). The playing is wonderful for its day and age, and he already has the "Bream" sound. Recommended for the serious collector. He re-visits most of these works later on RCA, but it is interesting to compare and contrast, and see how much he matured."

So Musical

Franz Metcalf | Los Angeles, CA United States | 06/08/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Though I'm no authority on guitar music, I do have two recordings of the Villa-Lobos preludes included on this disk. Bream's playing here beats the other recording hands-down. It has a quality of elegance and yet of fun that I've called in this review's title simply "musical." And that's what we listen to music for, isn't it? I truly love those pieces and this CD."

Bream in 1956 - the reissue of an earlier MCA CD release, wi

Discophage | France | 07/06/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I don't have this disc, but I wanted to point out to the potential buyer that the program has previously been released on CD, on an MCA "Double Decker" 2-CD set, in 1990 (JUlian Bream - Fret Works (2 CD Set) (MCA)), and give a few addional bits of information.



MCA owned the rights to the Westminster LP catalog and reissued some valuable Westminster material on these enjoyable Double Decker sets. The rights then passed (at the turn of the millenium) to Universal and now DG. Here, the program derives from 2 LPs published by Westminster in 1956: XWN 18135 had Sor, Turina and Falla (DG nicely uses the replica of the original "cubist" cover from XWN 18135), 18137 had Torroba and Villa Lobos. The MCA set was completed with the contents of a third Westminster LP, recorded a year later, XWN 18429, which had 14 pieces of John Dowland, played by Bream on the lute, now reissued by DG-Westminster on Julian Bream Plays Dowland & Bach, a 2 CD set with a Bach recital from the same year (XWN 18428) and a selection of Dowland's Ayres for four voices, accompanied by Bream.



If I add that, whenever I've been able to check, these DG-Westminster reissues boast far better transfers than some of the MCA Double Decker / Westminster reissues from the late 1980s and early 1990s, and that some of those Double Deckers are now offered at pretty steep prices on the secondary market, there should be no reservation in acquiring this Bream program in its new DG reissue, possibly complemented with the Dowland/Bach set.



Except for two considerations: one, even if the new transfers have improved the sound of Bream's 1956 recordings (and I assume they have), the sonics of the previous MCA reissue were here particularly fine and clear. Mono isn't as much a problem with a single guitar than with a full Symphony orchestra. Two, in order to fit these two LPs on one CD, DG left out three tracks: Turina's Andante and two from Torroba, including, absurdly, the first movement of the Sonata.



Granted, this consideration will be of importance only to the diehard Bream completist (who will have to duplicate the MCA Dowland recital if he wants the Bach recital, which is only on DG).



As for the music itself, see my review of the MCA set. Other than Falla and Villa Lobos, there is nothing that I find really substantial here. The pieces by Sor and Torroba are agreeable but hardly memorable trifles, and Turina's typical Spanish flavor is quite enjoyable."