This Is Your Life: Julian Bream

Julian BREAM CBE (1933-2020)

THIS IS YOUR LIFE - Julian Bream, classical guitarist, was surprised by Michael Aspel at the end of a special concert at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London, celebrating his 50 years as a performer.

Julian, who was born in Battersea, London, was a child prodigy who was given his first classical guitar at the age of 11. As a teenager, he played in concerts, performed music for feature films, and made his first radio broadcast on the BBC's Children's Hour in 1947. Encouraged by his father, he took lessons at the Royal College of Music, where he later studied the piano and composition full-time.

Having become the first professional guitar player in the UK, making his London debut at the Wigmore Hall in 1951, he earned international acclaim, playing in New York for the first time in 1958. In a 50-year career, in which several composers wrote specifically for him, including Malcolm Arnold, Benjamin Britton and William Walton, he released 40 albums and defied the musical establishment by making the guitar a recognised instrument.

"Do you think I could ask you for a lift? It's so hard getting a taxi round here!"

programme details...

Edition No: 967
Subject No: 942
Broadcast date: Mon 10 Feb 1997
Broadcast time: 7.00-7.30pm
Recorded: Thu 16 Jan 1997
Venue: unknown
Series: 37
Edition: 20
Code name: String

on the guest list...

Stanislav Heller
Noel - nephew
June Axon - partner
John Williams
Tony - brother
Paul - brother
Jan - sister
Jack Hughes
Jill Balcon
Johnny Underwood
John Bower
Humphrey Burton
Kate Bray
Colin Cowdrey
Richard Baker
Stephane Grappelli
Malcolm Arnold
Yehudi Menuhin
Tim Rice

production team...

Researcher: Clare de Vries
Writers: Clare de Vries, Ian Brown
Directors: Steve Docherty, Paul Kirrage
Associate Producer: Sue Green
Executive Producer: John Longley
Producer: John Graham

names above in bold indicate subjects of This Is Your Life

related pages...

Classical Life

a symphony of subjects

The Night of 1000 Lives

a celebration of a thousand editions

Screenshots of Julian Bream This Is Your Life

The Times 1997

This is his life

THE appearance of Michael Aspel and his Big Red Book is the sort of cheap thrill a critic scarcely dare hope for in the course of duty. But there they were, just as Julian Bream was about to break into a Villa-Lobos encore at the end of a concert to celebrate 50 years of professional life.

The guitar and the lute have been Bream's life, from his debut in Cheltenham in 1947 at the age of 13. on to tours of five continents, OBEs and CBEs: and from the most elusive Elizabethan lure-song to a Hollywood soundtrack.

A tiny cross-section of that life was glimpsed in Thursday's concert, as the varying relationships of different composers with the guitar were sampled. Those who wrote specifically for the instrument were represented by Robert de Visee, a musician at the court of Louis XIV, Takemitsu and Walton. The teasing ornamentation of the Baroque master warmed the fingers nicely for Bream's own new transcription of Bach's Cello Suite No 3 in C major.

The two Bourrtes provided a daunting handful of notes for an instrument lacking both the resonance and the sustaining power of the cello, but Bream's unbroken legato and subtle playing over the rose made it seem effortless. Takemitsu's In the Woods, a suite of three pieces, was as highly distilled as Walton's Five Bagatelles were flamboyant Neither Granados's Danzas espanolas nor Bartok's Petite Suite was written for the guitar. While the Bartok. Bream's transcription of six pieces from the 44 Duos for two violins, seemed stiff-jointed. the Granados was an intriguing reincarnation of music originally intended to evoke the guitar through the voice of the piano.

Bream now seemed indefatigable. If Aspel's limo had not been waiting, the party might well have gone on all night.

Hilary Finch

Series 37 subjects