Julian Bream: My Life in Music
INTERVIEW WITH THE DIRECTOR PAUL BALMER (this is an extract from a full broadcast version please contact judy@musiconearth.co.uk for print interviews).

Re-Released 25th September 2006 by popular demand

Q. Can you describe your approach to Julian's story?

PB:. As with Stéphane Grappelli, I wanted to capture the essence of a unique genius that transformed our musical landscape. The complete musical performances from the fifties, sixties, seventies, eighties, nineties and 'naoghties' were paramount. For the biographical content, as with Stéphane, I encouraged Julian to tell his own story, at home in the comfort of his favourite chair.

We also see him in his home music rooms both reminiscing and performing. He also took us back to his first 'public' performance - for the Philharmonic Society of Guitarists with the little Bm study of Sor - easy to play then but difficult for him now - this I call the 'Mozart' factor. (Children play Mozart with naïve innocence - adults are shy of the latent profundity.)

Q. What is the lynchpin of the story?

PB:. One of Julian's proudest achievements is the development of a 'non Spanish' guitar repertoire. The Walton 'Bagatelles', Rawsthorne's 'Elegy', the Malcolm Arnold 'Concerto' are all substantial works but Britten's Nocturnal Op. 70 is regarded by many as the modern 'centrepiece'. Julian was keen from day one of the project to frame his story within that work.

Having agreed with that concept I suggested to Julian that we return to the work's birthplace at Aldeburgh and that he performed excerpts at the Snape Maltings. We combined the visit with a return to Benjamin Britten's homes at Cragg House and the 'Red House'. I was delighted in my research to 'discover' the original manuscript and surprised that Julian had never seen this. Together in one of Britten's composing rooms we poured over the folio and compared that to Imogen Holst's fair copy and the printed score - a sort of musical 'Timeteam' - without the trenches.

Q. Is the whole film focused then on 'difficult' modern music?

PB:. No, as you know Bream has been amazing in his range of repertoire - everything from the Renaissance to Henze. I felt it was important to reflect that in his story. In fact the first thing Judy, my producer, and I did was to sit with Julian and identify the potential film material from a fifty odd year career. The world's film archive is sadly neglected by many of it's custodians and many key moments had been erased - for instance Julian with the great singer Victoria de Los Angeles - the BBC had a written record of this but the film had gone. Fortunately the Canadians are more scrupulous. They had a wonderful clip of Julian in the fifties with Peter Pears and another of Julian 'door-stepping' Igor Stravinsky trying to hustle a new work - these were irresistible and are of course on the DVD.

Q. What guitars does Julian play on the DVD?

PB:. The main guitar is his wonderful 1940 Hauser the property of Rose Augustine. Sadly this will be the last time he plays it as following Rose's death the guitar will now return to America. Julian merely had the instrument on extended loan. It's a fantastic instrument and our sound engineer Tony Wass has achieved at Aldeburgh what Julian regards as the best-recorded guitar sound he has ever heard.

Q. Does Julian only play modern guitar?

PB:. No, a mark of Julian's attention to detail is the Renaissance and Baroque guitars he had built for the 'Guittara' series. These were built specially by Jose Romanillos. The film material of these guitars has been sadly transferred many times and a poor mono transfer with very bad compression and hiss plagues even the recent 'Guitarra' DVD. Fortunately we were able to return to the original stereo sound and replace many of the faded film images.

Q. What about the lute?

PB:. Julian surprised me by revealing his first encounter with the music of John Dowland - in Manchester of all places. It's a remarkable story I'll leave Julian to tell it on the DVD. I was also surprised to hear about Julian's early work with Thurston Dart and George Malcolm. I love the harpsichord record with George and it's wonderful to make film of their work available at last.

Q. Didn't Julian have an early music consort in the fifties?

PB:. Not quite, the Julian Bream consort dates from approximately 1960 - we found footage of the earliest incarnation and also of the last version in the 1980's. It's fascinating to see these first 'professional' early music pioneers with their mixed bag of instruments. Julian talks very warmly of these pioneering days. His first lute was a conversion from a lute-guitar. His dad acquired that from a sailor! 

Q. Were there any surprises in Julian's story?

PB:. Many ! I had realised that the guitar and music worlds of 1946 were different from ours but not quite how different. Julian started out with no 'classical' guitar, very little music and a great difficulty in obtaining even basics such as strings. For a time he used 'gut' double length violin strings - and even they were scarce. His guitars included a Maccaferri 9-string complete with a Django Reinhardt cutaway. We feature this on the DVD 'guitar timeline'.

Q. Did Julian know of Django's music?

PB:. He idolised Django - he considers him a bigger influence on his work than Andrés Segovia. Though it's a marvellous moment when in interview Julian first recalls hearing Segovia.

In fact I only came to direct this project via the 'Spirit of Django'. My previous project 'Stéphane Grappelli - A Life in the Jazz Century' contained all known footage of Django. This was nominated for a British Academy Award and Julian turned up at BAFTA to hear and see this. He loves that DVD and eventually asked me to consider telling his story. It took me several milliseconds to say yes.

Q. Who taught Julian? 

PB:. That’s an interesting question. Initially his dad, who was a dance band banjoist and guitarist. Then Boris Perott - 'the last guitarist to the last Czar'. But much of Julian's story is of self discovery amidst the mysterious world of B.M.G. and the Philharmonic Society of Guitarists circa 1945. You need to hear Julian on this really. On the DVD he describes that nether world with great colour.

Q. What about his time at the Royal College of Music?

PB:. Well again Julian tells it best but suffice to say there were no guitar teachers! But they spotted his talent and taught him 'cello, piano and composition. I venture to suggest that this is why he remains the most musical of guitarists.

Q. What was your favourite moment in the project?

PB:. There are so many ! One day Julian played me the Richard Rodney Bennett Sonata for Solo Guitar - I had never heard it before. His recording is superb and commercially unreleased until now. I thought it was fantastic and repeated hearings mean for me it is now a more important work than 'Nocturnal'. I sense from examining both manuscripts that Richard understands the guitar more than Britten - I also sense that Britten really wanted to write a lute piece. Julian says this on the DVD. It took hearing Falla's 'Homenaje' to change Britten's mind.

My favourite moment on the DVD is the return to Aldeburgh. Julian was clearly overcome with emotion, returning to this place which he describes as 'beautiful but sinister'. An atmosphere I try to evoke. There is a special light down by the sea and we even filmed in the rain to catch the changing light and the rolling waves on Britten's favourite seascape - the setting for Peter Grimes.

Julian describes himself on the DVD as "a meat and potatoes man" and he provided lots of meat for the intellect in a fantastic fifty odd years. It's been an honour to help tell his remarkable story. I hope you find his story as inspiring as I did, in his staggering achievement he proved that anything was possible given the will, the talent and a lot of determination. Appropriately the DVD closes with a quote from Julian:-

"Passion and the desire to communicate that’s the key"

Paul Balmer - October 2003

Re-Released 25th September 2006 by popular demand