Julian Bream plays J.S.Bach BWV999 in 1962

[Carey]

I think this is my favorite performance of this piece- phrasing, tempo, sound,
and vibe.

https://hooktube.com/watch?v=0g4FrGcRAIs

[Red_Label]

Good stuff! Out of the Mount Rushmore of classical guitar (Segovia, Williams and Bream)... Julian was always my favorite. Segovia had tone and feel (and was the father of modern classical guitar after building on Terrega of course). Williams had/has technical virtuosity. And Bream was the best compromise between those two ends of the spectrum. Just my opinion from having listened to their albums since I was a kid in the 70s and 80s.

P.S. And then there's the whole lute thing that Bream did besides guitar. Bream also embraced modern composers the most of the three (though I'm generally not a fan of many of the modern works).

[Carey]

Bream's my favorite of the big three too, by a long ways.
Wish he was still playing.

[Red_Label]

Originally Posted by Carey

Bream's my favorite of the big three too, by a long ways.
Wish he was still playing.

Same here.

Another one of my favorites was Christopher Parkening. But I'm biased, because I was a Classical Guitar Performance major at Montana State University when he was the head of the program there in the 80s. I still have my tattered copy of his 1st Parkening method book from those days, which is what I first learned to play classical guitar from. Actually, I had already been playing classical guitar by ear, having learned pieces like Lauro's "Danza Venezolano" by ear before I even went to college. But once I went, my professor got me hooked-up with Parkening's book and away I went with sight-reading and the rest of the normal classical program. I have a bunch of Christopher's CDs and the accompanying sheet music. Too bad I've drifted away from traditional classical... I really should move back towards it again.

Anyways... some of the same qualities that I really like about Bream, I liked about Parkening. Bream is of course a more complete player, but both seemed to subscribe to the Segovia school of tone/feel over technical dazzle. Don't get me wrong, John Williams has plenty of feel and tone, but his technique is just so flawless that it almost seems to take precedence over the tone and feel to my ears. Dunno why that is. Bream's tone always seemed so round and fat. Williams' thinner. Just my personal opinion.


P.S. The staggering number of classical guitar prodigies and virtuosos these days is mind-boggling. I can't even keep up with it any more (despite having subscribed to Classical Guitar Magazine for years). It's almost too much! Like trying to drink from a fire hose. Life was simpler when we had the big three, and then the next level players such as Parkening, Barrueco (maybe my favorite classical player), Fisk, Russel, and a few others. I could digest that. Now you've got some 9 year old from China playing ridiculously difficult pieces and I'm left to wonder "you've got the technique, but do you have the maturity to even understand what you're trying to convey and why?" That will come in time I'm sure, but it's both an exciting time to be alive, and kind of depressing... if you get to realizing that there are literally a million players out there who could play you into the weeds and make you think "what's the point???" LOL! Fortunately, I'm getting older and am content to just do my own thing and put it out there for whomever might find something useful in it (even if it's just ME who gets something out of it). But when I was younger... it would have been kind of hard to take, having all of these prodigies out there on YouTube, making me feel like a rank amateur.

[Carey]

I hear you about the abilities of some of these young players- it can be disheartening, at times! I'm interested to see what becomes of Xavier
Jara, because he seems to have something special, to my ears.

We need a "new Bream"..