0:00:10 > 0:00:13Julian Bream is the ultimate guitar hero.
0:00:15 > 0:00:17Technically brilliant,
0:00:17 > 0:00:20there's an astounding sensitivity to his playing.
0:00:26 > 0:00:31A virtuoso and a showman, in his 50-year career, Bream pioneered
0:00:31 > 0:00:34the place of the classical guitar in British musical life.
0:00:40 > 0:00:44In this programme, we'll see and hear three decades of great
0:00:44 > 0:00:47guitar and lute performances from the BBC archives.
0:00:47 > 0:00:49From the intimacy of Bach...
0:00:51 > 0:00:54..to the energy of William Walden.
0:00:56 > 0:01:00We'll explore his routes in the hot jazz of Django Reinhardt.
0:01:07 > 0:01:10And discover how we revived the long-forgotten
0:01:10 > 0:01:12Elizabethan lute repertoire.
0:01:19 > 0:01:22There are duets with his great friend, John Williams.
0:01:28 > 0:01:32And through the magic of television, he even duets with himself.
0:01:38 > 0:01:42Good looking, with sparkling eyes and the curl of a smile never
0:01:42 > 0:01:43far from his lips,
0:01:43 > 0:01:46Julian Bream has always been a hugely popular
0:01:46 > 0:01:50figure, the antithesis of the high-brow, remote classical artist.
0:01:55 > 0:01:59In 1962, the seminal arts programme Monitor followed him on tour.
0:02:05 > 0:02:08GUITAR
0:03:39 > 0:03:40APPLAUSE
0:03:46 > 0:03:48The most important thing,
0:03:48 > 0:03:52and certainly the most satisfying thing about playing the guitar, as
0:03:52 > 0:03:58far as I'm concerned, is the intimate contact ones has with the strings.
0:03:58 > 0:04:01Not just with the left hand but with the right hand.
0:04:01 > 0:04:04And because of this intimate contact with the strings,
0:04:04 > 0:04:09one has at one's disposal the most wonderful varieties of colour.
0:04:09 > 0:04:14You can get piquant shades, you see, like this.
0:04:18 > 0:04:21Or you can get the normal tone colour of the guitar.
0:04:24 > 0:04:26Or a harp-like, velvet quality.
0:04:30 > 0:04:33And if you really want the effect, you can
0:04:33 > 0:04:34make a pizzicato sound like this.
0:04:36 > 0:04:40- What about a Bach prelude? - Bach prelude? All right. Bach.
0:06:04 > 0:06:06APPLAUSE AND CHATTERING
0:06:09 > 0:06:12'Julian Bream is London-born and London-bred.
0:06:12 > 0:06:16'He comes from Battersea and he lives in Kensington.
0:06:16 > 0:06:20'His friends are artists, sculptors, businessmen and barmaids.
0:06:20 > 0:06:23'He's meeting people all the time on his job, and the job takes him
0:06:23 > 0:06:26'all over the world, Darlington one week and Rome the next.'
0:06:26 > 0:06:29Well, cheers, everybody, and the best of luck.
0:06:31 > 0:06:34'And if he's not meeting his friends here, in the Fulham Road,
0:06:34 > 0:06:37'then as likely as not, it will be at his own flat.
0:06:37 > 0:06:40'It's a kind of regular thing, Julian Bream's on a Saturday night.'
0:06:59 > 0:07:02'This is where it all began for Julian Bream,
0:07:02 > 0:07:06'with the music of Django Reinhardt, the gypsy guitarist who made
0:07:06 > 0:07:10'the Hot Club of France so famous in the '30 and '40s.
0:07:18 > 0:07:22'This was the kind of music that Julian Bream grew up with.'
0:08:15 > 0:08:16GUESTS APPLAUD AND CHEER
0:08:22 > 0:08:24Don't worry, Patch. We're cut.
0:08:28 > 0:08:31'The piano was the first instrument the Bream learned as a boy.
0:08:31 > 0:08:33'By the time he was 11, he was taking lessons on Saturday mornings
0:08:33 > 0:08:36'at the Royal College of Music.'
0:08:36 > 0:08:38After my lessons, I used to pop onto a bus,
0:08:38 > 0:08:43toddle across Battersea Bridge, and visit my grandma at her pub.
0:08:43 > 0:08:44JAZZY PIANO
0:08:51 > 0:08:54This is all that's left of my grandma's pub,
0:08:54 > 0:08:57and up against that wall was the old piano,
0:08:57 > 0:09:01and it was on this piano I used to play on a Saturday night,
0:09:01 > 0:09:06and, well, I used to sometimes make five bob, if I was lucky.
0:09:06 > 0:09:08They used to have a whip round with a cap.
0:09:08 > 0:09:11Well, in those days, it was very good money.
0:09:11 > 0:09:14When I first began to play the guitar,
0:09:14 > 0:09:17it was not the classical guitar but the jazz guitar.
0:09:17 > 0:09:18JAZZ MELODY
0:09:25 > 0:09:28I had already given my Wigmore Hall debut in '51,
0:09:28 > 0:09:32and my career was really getting under way, but, unfortunately,
0:09:32 > 0:09:37I was called up for my national service in 1952.
0:09:37 > 0:09:38COMMANDER SHOUTS
0:09:38 > 0:09:43As the Korean War was on, I was on draft, for Korea, in fact,
0:09:43 > 0:09:48and I really didn't fancy taking lutes and guitars out to that
0:09:48 > 0:09:52sort of climate, apart from the fact that they may have got blown up too.
0:09:52 > 0:09:55So, I had to find another posting,
0:09:55 > 0:09:59and I was accepted into the Royal Artillery Band at Woolwich
0:09:59 > 0:10:02on the basis of a three-year engagement with the colours.
0:10:02 > 0:10:05It's amazing that I was accepted at all,
0:10:05 > 0:10:09because what could the guitar do in a military band?
0:10:09 > 0:10:12I couldn't go on a march playing the guitar.
0:10:12 > 0:10:15So I quickly got myself an amplifier
0:10:15 > 0:10:21and I drew a guitar from the stores, if you can believe it!
0:10:21 > 0:10:26And put a magnet underneath the strings and away I went.
0:10:26 > 0:10:29And about once a week, mostly in the winter time,
0:10:29 > 0:10:32I would be playing in a dance band.
0:10:32 > 0:10:36I had an extraordinary career in the army, because as soon as I got
0:10:36 > 0:10:41posted to Woolwich, I promptly got myself a flat in Kensington.
0:10:41 > 0:10:44I found that if I paid somebody to look after my bed space
0:10:44 > 0:10:48in the barracks, I could live at my flat in Kensington
0:10:48 > 0:10:52and drive down every morning, be on parade by nine o'clock,
0:10:52 > 0:10:57and it would appear that I was just an ordinary regular soldier.
0:10:57 > 0:11:00And on my leave, I used to travel abroad.
0:11:00 > 0:11:04And I did concerts, which was totally illegal.
0:11:04 > 0:11:06Bream's background of Battersea and jazz,
0:11:06 > 0:11:09his concert work as a guitarist and his terrific vitality,
0:11:09 > 0:11:13have taken him to the 16th century and the forgotten world of the lute,
0:11:13 > 0:11:17an instrument that's been out of the public mind for over 300 years.
0:11:19 > 0:11:22This particular lute has 14 strings
0:11:22 > 0:11:25and is a copy of an instrument dated 1585.
0:11:25 > 0:11:27HE TUNES LUTE
0:12:00 > 0:12:02Shall we know go on to the last movement?
0:12:52 > 0:12:55- Well, how was that?- I thought that was a bit quick, George.
0:12:55 > 0:12:59- What do you think?- Oh, I don't know. Not for general purposes.
0:12:59 > 0:13:01When you go into a concert, for example,
0:13:01 > 0:13:03have you got all your colours worked out beforehand?
0:13:03 > 0:13:07No, I never work out the colouring or the registration in my pieces
0:13:07 > 0:13:10before I go onto the platform.
0:13:10 > 0:13:14I leave that absolutely spontaneously until the performance.
0:13:14 > 0:13:17- So that no two performances are ever exactly the same?- Never.
0:13:17 > 0:13:18Well, at least I hope they're not.
0:13:18 > 0:13:22You've got to, if you like, be a little bit reckless.
0:13:46 > 0:13:49In the early '50s, when he went to the Royal College Of Music,
0:13:49 > 0:13:52Julian Bream wasn't allowed to study the guitar.
0:13:52 > 0:13:55"Don't bring that instrument into this building,"
0:13:55 > 0:13:56the director told him.
0:13:56 > 0:14:01By 1963, the instrument had gained a measure of respectability.
0:14:01 > 0:14:04Here's Bream with the English composer Malcolm Arnold
0:14:04 > 0:14:07discussing how they came to collaborate on a guitar concerto.
0:14:07 > 0:14:09The anchorman is Richard Attenborough.
0:14:09 > 0:14:12Malcolm, tell me, it seems to me, knowing very little about it -
0:14:12 > 0:14:15but it's a unique occasion having a composer and soloist here -
0:14:15 > 0:14:18this is a very quiet instrument and therefore it seems to me
0:14:18 > 0:14:22it would be very difficult to write a concerto for such an instrument.
0:14:22 > 0:14:25Yes, it's difficult. It's very easy to drown the...the guitar.
0:14:25 > 0:14:28I mean, the technical side of the guitar
0:14:28 > 0:14:30is a difficult thing to understand.
0:14:30 > 0:14:32It's a very subtle instrument.
0:14:32 > 0:14:35But the reason I wrote for the guitar anyway,
0:14:35 > 0:14:39for Julian in particular, is that I admire him,
0:14:39 > 0:14:43I should think, almost more than any other musician living,
0:14:43 > 0:14:46- to put it mildly.- Yeah. - But I didn't like him to know.
0:14:46 > 0:14:48He's quite conceited enough as it is.
0:14:48 > 0:14:51So don't tell him, for goodness' sake!
0:15:09 > 0:15:10WIND INSTRUMENTS JOIN IN
0:15:28 > 0:15:30STRINGS JOIN IN
0:19:08 > 0:19:11Bream was a great virtuoso, no doubt about that.
0:19:11 > 0:19:13He was also a showman, a brilliant entertainer.
0:19:13 > 0:19:16But he was a musical pioneer as well.
0:19:16 > 0:19:20His eponymous consort brought back to life the long-forgotten music
0:19:20 > 0:19:24written for the lute, and his work performing Elizabethan music
0:19:24 > 0:19:29paved the way for a full-scale early music revival in the 1970s and '80s.
0:19:30 > 0:19:33A dance arrangement for full consort
0:19:33 > 0:19:37of John Dowland's famous well-known song,
0:19:37 > 0:19:39Can She Excuse My Wrongs,
0:19:39 > 0:19:44which was sometimes called, in the instrumental version,
0:19:44 > 0:19:46The Earl Of Essex Galliard.
0:21:01 > 0:21:04Well, it's tremendous when you think that this music
0:21:04 > 0:21:09was written between 1580 and 1615, just 35 years.
0:21:09 > 0:21:14And of course this is really the reason why I'm so stimulated,
0:21:14 > 0:21:19because I feel that one should resuscitate
0:21:19 > 0:21:22the sort of deadness of our musical life - I think deadness.
0:23:20 > 0:23:22APPLAUSE
0:23:23 > 0:23:29When two great musicians decide to make music together,
0:23:29 > 0:23:32the result can only be extraordinary and unique.
0:23:32 > 0:23:36Well, this evening we have the privilege to receive
0:23:36 > 0:23:41as our guests, two of the most celebrated classical guitarists.
0:23:41 > 0:23:46Ladies and gentlemen, Julian Bream and John Williams.
0:23:46 > 0:23:47APPLAUSE
0:28:54 > 0:28:55APPLAUSE
0:28:57 > 0:29:00More from that extraordinary partnership of Julian Bream
0:29:00 > 0:29:03and John Williams later on in the programme.
0:29:03 > 0:29:04It seems, in the '70s,
0:29:04 > 0:29:07as if Bream was never really off the nation's TV screens.
0:29:37 > 0:29:41Julian Bream left London in the mid-1960s to move to Semley,
0:29:41 > 0:29:43a pretty village on the Wiltshire-Dorset border,
0:29:43 > 0:29:46near the town of Shaftesbury.
0:29:46 > 0:29:49A decade after he'd moved, the BBC followed him to the country.
0:29:49 > 0:29:51Perhaps I ought to try a taste.
0:29:51 > 0:29:55The truth of the matter is, Bream has a secret ambition.
0:29:55 > 0:29:58He is acknowledged everywhere as a great guitarist -
0:29:58 > 0:30:00that is indisputable.
0:30:00 > 0:30:02Very nice.
0:30:02 > 0:30:05But is the world is ready to recognise his talents
0:30:05 > 0:30:06on the cricket field?
0:30:22 > 0:30:26The opponents declare, having knocked up a formidable score.
0:30:26 > 0:30:28But here comes Bream
0:30:28 > 0:30:31and everyone is confident he can play a captain's innings.
0:30:31 > 0:30:34Last man in and everything depends on him.
0:30:34 > 0:30:3836 runs scored, 75 needed to win.
0:30:43 > 0:30:48Oh, dear, oh, dear. This is a sad day for English cricket.
0:30:58 > 0:31:01There's no reason why an international virtuoso
0:31:01 > 0:31:03shouldn't live in the country,
0:31:03 > 0:31:06provided he plans his touring very carefully.
0:31:06 > 0:31:10In fact, I plan my tours around the pruning
0:31:10 > 0:31:14and, indeed, the fresh vegetables.
0:31:15 > 0:31:17Terrific!
0:33:15 > 0:33:20I think there is something fascinating about plucked sound.
0:33:20 > 0:33:25The plucked instruments, most of them - if not all - come from the East.
0:33:25 > 0:33:28And perhaps it's to do with Eastern mysticism
0:33:28 > 0:33:31and religious experience,
0:33:31 > 0:33:34but plucked sound has a remarkable quality...
0:33:36 > 0:33:42..because the actual pluck itself is the apex of the sound,
0:33:42 > 0:33:45and thereafter it dies.
0:33:45 > 0:33:50And if you are playing, say, a phrase of six or seven notes,
0:33:50 > 0:33:54you're dealing, really, with six or seven births
0:33:54 > 0:33:57and six or seven deaths.
0:33:57 > 0:34:01We hate death and we don't know how to deal with it,
0:34:01 > 0:34:07so, in fact, we sustain our lives as long as possible.
0:34:07 > 0:34:09Come on, bowl me one of those googlies!
0:34:10 > 0:34:12One solid clunk on those hands
0:34:12 > 0:34:15could put an end to his career for good.
0:34:15 > 0:34:20Naturally, it's a terrific risk, but I feel that I must live,
0:34:20 > 0:34:22I must do things with my hands.
0:34:22 > 0:34:27After all, my hands must be strong, particularly my left hand.
0:34:27 > 0:34:30In a sense I don't want to cosset them too much,
0:34:30 > 0:34:34because I think one can upset a certain equilibrium
0:34:34 > 0:34:36and cause accidents.
0:34:38 > 0:34:41I don't really bother with insurance
0:34:41 > 0:34:45because I like to think, in some sense, I'm a practical person.
0:34:45 > 0:34:48I believe that, to some extent, one is in the lap of the gods.
0:37:10 > 0:37:13The relationship of the lute to the other instruments is very
0:37:13 > 0:37:18interesting. It never has the tune, but it has so much of the texture.
0:37:18 > 0:37:21Also, it gives so much of the pace.
0:37:21 > 0:37:24Believe it or not, all the divisions
0:37:24 > 0:37:28and fast-running passages in my lute part are all written down.
0:37:28 > 0:37:32Many people think I make them up, but these Elizabethan players
0:37:32 > 0:37:36must have been every bit as good as myself, possibly a bit better.
0:38:08 > 0:38:10Not a bad performance at all.
0:38:10 > 0:38:13It's such a wonderful sound, isn't it - I'm afraid to say so -
0:38:13 > 0:38:15when the lute comes in?
0:38:57 > 0:38:58Cut!
0:38:58 > 0:39:02Thanks to 1970s television magic, Julian Bream was able to
0:39:02 > 0:39:06partner himself in a duet for two lutes by John Dowland.
0:40:22 > 0:40:27Another visitor to the country was his old friend John Williams.
0:40:27 > 0:40:29As John Williams once recalled,
0:40:29 > 0:40:32"Although the way we each play is as alike as chalk and cheese,
0:40:32 > 0:40:34"we're not two musicians,
0:40:34 > 0:40:37"we're an ensemble and we create magic together."
0:43:59 > 0:44:02Bream's relationship with John Williams grew ever closer.
0:44:02 > 0:44:04There were recitals, international tours,
0:44:04 > 0:44:07they made an album called, quite simply, Together.
0:44:07 > 0:44:11Here they are together again in the glorious chapel
0:44:11 > 0:44:13of Wardour Castle, near Bream's country residence.
0:46:54 > 0:46:56APPLAUSE
0:46:59 > 0:47:03A composer who wrote for Julian Bream was William Walton.
0:47:03 > 0:47:06Bream commissioned him to write a set of bagatelles.
0:47:06 > 0:47:08Not that the process was entirely straightforward,
0:47:08 > 0:47:13as the guitarist explained to Barry Norman on the BBC's Omnibus.
0:47:16 > 0:47:18I commissioned these pieces and William, of course,
0:47:18 > 0:47:21- takes a long time. You know... - I was going to ask about that.
0:47:21 > 0:47:24He's famous for, you know...
0:47:24 > 0:47:28getting up in the morning and writing three notes and then going
0:47:28 > 0:47:32back in the afternoon and rubbing one of them out, you know.
0:47:32 > 0:47:37But I think he had great difficulty trying to start these pieces,
0:47:37 > 0:47:41but once he got into it, I think it all flowed pretty quickly for him,
0:47:41 > 0:47:46and what is interesting is that the writing is absolutely
0:47:46 > 0:47:47marvellous for the instrument.
0:49:50 > 0:49:53As we reach the end of this rich collection of Julian Bream's
0:49:53 > 0:49:56appearances at the BBC, let's see him on the biggest stage
0:49:56 > 0:50:00the Corporation can provide, the stage of the Royal Albert Hall.
0:50:00 > 0:50:05Here he is at the BBC Proms in 1991 playing that guitar concerto
0:50:05 > 0:50:08that Malcolm Arnold wrote for him in the 1950s.
0:56:26 > 0:56:29The first movement of Malcolm Arnold's guitar concerto.
0:56:29 > 0:56:33Julian Bream playing at the BBC Proms in 1991.
0:56:35 > 0:56:38He retired from concerts in 2002.
0:56:38 > 0:56:40"I felt I'd done enough," he said at the time.
0:56:40 > 0:56:44"After all, I've been on stage for 55 years."
0:56:44 > 0:56:46His legacy is absolutely clear.
0:56:46 > 0:56:48He brought the lute back to life
0:56:48 > 0:56:51after it had practically disappeared for two centuries.
0:56:55 > 0:57:00And he turned the guitar into a real force in our concert life.
0:57:03 > 0:57:06We'll finish with Julian Bream playing in glorious shadow,
0:57:06 > 0:57:08a recording from the early '60s,
0:57:08 > 0:57:13as he plays music by his Brazilian hero, Villa-Lobos.