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HomeMusicClassicalHistorical PeriodsThe Essential Julian Bream |
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The performer's choice Jul 11, 2008
I should make clear at the outset that I don't own this (double) album. However, over the years I have accumulated all the recordings in previous manifestations. Since Amazon does not (as I write) list the contents, I give it below. By my computation, the total time is well over two hours.
1) Recuerdos de la Alhambra [Tárrega]
2-4) Studies No. 7, 8 & 12 [Villa-Lobos]
5) Serenata andaluza [Malats]
6) Fandanguillo, Op. 36 [Turina]
7) Segovia, Op. 29 [Roussel]
8) Bagatelles (5) [Walton]
9) Homenaje "pour Le tombeau de Claude Debussy" [Falla]
10) The Miller's Dance [Falla]
11) Invocación y danza [Rodrigo]
12-18) Courtly Dances from Gloriana, Op. 53 [Britten]
19) Gallardas [Sanz]
20) Canarios [Sanz]
21) Villano [Guerau]
22) Canario [Guerau]
23) Trio Sonata, BWV 525 [Bach]
24) Rondo Brillant Op. 2/2 [Aguado]
25) Variations on a Theme of Mozart, Op. 9 [Sor]
26) Introduction and Fandango [Boccherini]
27) Rossiniana No. 1, Op. 119 [Giuliani]
28) Valses poéticos (7), H. 147 [Granados]
29) Guitar Concerto, Op. 67: Lento [Arnold]
The trouble with "Essential", "Best of" and "Ultimate" collections is of course that the choice can never be other than personal. In this regard, however, the present album has an especial distinction: the choice is (it says here) by Mr Bream himself.
This being the case, there are some some surprising omissions: Britten's Nocturnal, written for Bream and considered by many (although not by me) to be the greatest piece ever written for classical guitar; nothing by Dowland, reportedly the performer's favourite composer; in fact, no Renaissance lute music at all, although he was one of its greatest modern pioneers.
Another oddity is that RCA should add to its many Bream anthologies at the same time as it is apparently busy deleting many of the artist's earlier albums, a source of much wailing and gnashing of teeth among those who were too young to buy them when they first appeared.
And so this compilation only gets three stars from me, despite the five-star performances; it's simply too much of a dog's breakfast, and it's not even a DVD Audio or Super Audio CD like Popular Classics. If I had no Bream recordings whatsoever, I would get the original albums -- what remains of them.
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