Julian Bream plays for Stravinsky (vaimusic.com)

[corystereo]

What's the SECOND most important/significant instant in this video?

1:48 Bream randomly strums the first few notes of Black Sabbath's "Iron Man" during his tune up, several years before the song was written.

Fascinating coincidence.

[beniwilliams]

Cringe-makingly awful! Embarrassingly sycophantic! Neither the time nor the place! Union reps pulling their collars, watching the clock as the dreadful pavane serenades paint drying... and Igor dreams of steaming borsch...

[alkoolblue]

Thank you for sharing this impressive document!

[rawrgDX]

Aaaaaawww... Bream is sooooooo young! XD

[poupee58]

Bream plays the lute like a guitar ,just wrong .And Stravinsky was not too interested ,but Bream did try.

[rawenpasha]

what piece did he play

[rawrgDX]

@rawenpasha It's Lachrimae Pavan by John Dowland.

[rawenpasha]

@rawrgDX

thanks .preciate it

[rawenpasha]

what piece did he played

[minasgekos]

haha, this video is priceless. Stravinsky was very old, he was in the middle of a recording, had lot of things in his mins. As someone pointed out, bad moment for this to happen.

[Kitsua]

You can tell from his every word, tone and body movement that he can barely contain his awe and excitement at meeting such a genius. I would have been proud to have held it together that well, let alone play something so intimate for him. I bet he cherished the memory.

[Marina45226]

obnoxious commentary from an idiot

[Marina45226]

obnoxious commentary from an idiot

[filovodentas]

What's the most important/significant instant in this video?

3:40 - 3:42 Stravinsky's right hand.

He really appreciated Bream's performance.

Beautiful to see.

[dalecampbl7]

Stravinsky don't seem that impressed...hahaha

[osdon]

The piece he plays is the Largo from "Holy Shit This Is Awkward" by Downland.

[PetruBecker4Rusty]

@osdon auhauahuahauha



[DAngeloLuthier]

Thank you for this video ! Very very good !

[ooosteve]

the old fart did not seem to impressed....

[FirstPublicChannel]

Dowland's Lachrimae... sigh

[chengyanslc]

@FirstPublicChannel Shortened version of

[jafsc]

Wonderful communion!

[rokus666]

"Very bad to meet you" :)

[fyodormd]

would you like to see my lute?

[tzeqin]

@fyodormd - hey.... *facepalms

[simonshusse]

A rather awkward meeting up until Bream starts to play, after he is done I get the feeling that Stravinsky would have preferred more lute music instead of his original agenda. I'm glad Bream stood his ground and played the Pavane! :-)

[sonique25]

A Bream hay que darle crédito por imponerse y tocar para un gigante, me encanta como todo el mundo se calla cuando empieza a tocar por cierto

[Stravinsky91]

I envy my father... when he went to the Royal musical academy in Stockholm, Sweden, he was present at Igor Stravinskys visit there, and was blessed with a glimpse of the maestro himself... God how I envy my dad...

[GinoTheSinner]

ahhhahahahha i like that intro.... with the stern voice reading.. "Julian Bream is the world best player at lute!!!!...." all by a british show producer... that is something.

[Poesie63]

@GinoTheSinner

Actually it's a Canadian show.

[fendermac]

Bream is importunate for sure but credit to him for even being able to play in front of Stravinsky....and I think poupee58 is unfairly underrating JB

[cutepossession]

ass kisser

[WilliamEGD]

Oh how beautiful... He plays Stravinsky my favourite piece by Dowland "Lacrimae/Flow my Tears" and I've never heard it so sweet.

[thunorrr]

What is the name of that song he plays on the lute?

[solemondo]

@thunorrr Lachrimae Pavan by John Dowland

[poupee58]

Julian Brown nose making a twit of himself .Stravinsky could care less..Bream is not even a great lute player.

[FRIDAY13TAURUS]

@poupee58 your perception is far from accurate

[Rexicano]

@poupee58

One can see why so many people call you an asshole.

[poupee58]

Julian Brown nose making a twit of himself .Stravinsky could care less..

[codonauta]

The meeting happenned in a bad moment for J Bream. Stravinsky was focused in the speech which would start in some moments. Or it was a rehearsal?

[fendermac]

I suspect that Stravinsky might be one of the very few people that JB would be that deferential to.Lol

[classicalmannick101]

"Julian Bream is the worlds best player of the lute" FACT

[classicalmannick101]

'would you like to see my lute?'

Stravinsky is excited by the physical presence of musical instruments lol

[dittonamed]

i want that exact lute and that exact sheet music

[obanion6]

@dittonamed I think I know who has it now.

[politicopol]

Julian Bream was correctly deferential...good job old chap...

[abby161919]

whay dident he play the guitar for him?

[southernmagnus]

Absolutely fascinating. Two men I adore. Genius, and completely real human interaction. This made my day, thank you for uploading this.

[pinkteph]

Hermoso Momento.

[sleazebee]

"would you like to see my lute"?

[ex0rdium]

Just a beautiful video...

[Technogrow55]

A nervous and fanboyish Julian Bream being introduced to an exhausted but still (slightly) cordial Stravinsky. Bream asks that eternal question-"Would you like to see my lute?" . Then for the first time and briefly, starts serenading the Maestro on his lute. Stravinsky is hypnotized as Bream plays Dowland's Lachrimae Pavan! THANKS

[luteguitar]

fortunaly today the lute sounds like a lute and not like the thing in this video.

the thing that Julian Bream is playing is a german lute-guitar but with the shape of a lute made by the luthier David Rubio, is a fake lute , a real lute have the most horrible sound you can hear if played with nails is very metallic because is a softer instrument than guitar and it was created to be played with only fingertips, this is why a romantic guitar sounds good with fingertips and a modern one not.

[PedramFalsafi]

I love the way Bream starts talking to Stravinsky......how are youuuu??? :) so funny

[SirJohnamus]

That lute playing is the kind of playing only heard in my dreams nowadays. I wish I could play like that.

[mars7272]

Truly great video. Shows what an artist and great opportunist Julian Bream is.

Unfortunately, Stravinsky never did write anything for the guitar or lute. But, just imagine if he did...

[i4orJesusChrist]

@mars7272 he should've played something by Stravinsky rather than medieval sounding piece that is completely boring, haha

[ninebreaker21]

@i4orJesusChrist Elizabethan

[reverendbryan]

Julian's such a fanboy! Then again, I probably would be too.

[chopin65]

I know! Star struck. A man of Bream's great talent begging for attention from the great composer is strange to watch. LOL.

[pauljannone123]

Would you like to see a lute, would you like to see my lute. Classic. What a character Julian bream is!!

[lanzfriszt]

Did you see that look on Stravinsky's face when the twat Julian Bream sits down? (0'27)

Don't bother the Maestro!

[chopin65]

Get back to us when you can play as well as Bream did. Then you will have earned the right to call one of the greatest performers a "twat". You're not fit to polish Bream's shoes.

[lanzfriszt]

Alright it was a bit stupid to call him a twat. But I really didn't appreciate the way he approached him, keeping his hands on his knees as if he was talking to a handicapped or something. You can clearly notice that Igor was busy, he could 've wait for a more appropriate moment. However he certainly is a great performer.

[chopin65]

Fair enough. But I think all old men are grumpy like that. Time is flying by. And Bream was introduced by another person to Stravinsky. Sorry about the mean words. I just happen to be a great fan of Bream.

[Sandortegon]

Interesting ... this is related in Julian's Bream DVD as an embarrasing moment for Julian, who was looking for contemporary composers who might be willing to compose for him ... but Stravinsky wasn't interested at all. But I liked how Julian smiled when he remembered the moment.

He was a very positive and modest character ... unlike Segovia, who shunned some of his contemporanies, including very interesting composers and didn't recognized his limitations as an interpreter.

[Artezoros]

@Sandortegon you are right but you cant expect stravinsky to compose for bream( like the childisch approach of bream by the way), however bream is a genius the lute is one of the hardest intsruments to play and segovia is afreak his face remains emotionless while playing.

[chopin65]

I don't think Segovia was a freak. The face has nothing to do with the playing, either.

[wstewart27]

To see two of my childhood heroes in one film together. Priceless. I don't care if it is awkward or embarrassing for some to watch. Great playing and (I know I am interpreting) I loved watching Igor's reserve melt during the performance. Music does have extraordinary power- especially in the hand's of an extraordinary player. Even the greatest composers are not immune to the seduction of the sound. Perhaps they are even more susceptible to it than most.

[michaellowpoligon]

By god, man! very well written.

[minasgekos]

Bream was indeed a good luth player for his time. That is for sure. But i don't like the way he approaches and talks to Igor Stravinsky.

[r2dxhate]

i think i just decided not to kill myself. how touching...

[Sh4dyD4ny]

good choice you made! see.. music can change your life!

[michaellowpoligon]

Anyone who can sell a Pavane in such a corteous way and than play it with such a notion, could repose upon his laurels.

Wished we mortals had an infimun part of one of these skills.

[michaellowpoligon]

Besides being the best lutenist I've heard, Mr. Bream knows how to sell his fish. See how easily he gets THE greatest music composer of the last century mesmerized. And he plays that Pavane even without the usual wrrm up. Yes, he has the guts.

[Vlaqq]

c'mon, this is really easy and i don't think stravinksy was impressed that much - he was probably bored

[BernardProfitendieu]

awkward!

[elseverwoerd]

Why?

[BernardProfitendieu]

a) forcing himself on the always courteous Stravinsky who told him in his polite was that he was busy

b) taking his lute out of the case as if invited to

c) starting to play, even after the director clearly called for the recording (not his) to start

d) continuing to play long after anyone wanted him to

e) the false casualness of his conversation even though cameras were rolling in his face

f) the whole "I'm ready for my close-up Mr. DeMille" quality of this opportunist

take your pick.

[tomgamble100]

he was trying to persuade stravinsky to compose a piece for him, in an interview Bream said "I've never been more embarresed in my life"

[BernardProfitendieu]

nice playing there, Tom ... esp. the Villa-Lobos

[thejugglenaut91]

he certainly didn't mind listening to the premier player of the lute in action in front of him. The whole room became completely quite and clapped at the end. nBesides, Julian was known to be certainly intrusive in asking the composers for pieces on the guitar. As a guitarist, he is a god for doing so because we have a whole new repertoire due to him.

[BernardProfitendieu]

yyes, I'm familiar with the "Pushy Worm Repertoire" as it has come to be known in guitar circles

awkward!

[thejugglenaut91]

what the fuck are you talking about? I'm a guitarist personally, professionally, and I know many many guitarists. None has derided Julian's accomplishments such as calling it a "Pushy Worm Repertoire". Fucking Benjamin Britten? Brouwer? Takemitsu? Malcolm arnold for god sake. They all composed for Bream. Hell Takemitsu, so entranced by the guitar, AT THE END OF HIS LIFE wrote a guitar piece and one other piece on his death bed.

[BernardProfitendieu]

did you forget to take your medication today juggles?

why don't you invest in a case of prunes? you're clearly the most constipated person on the planet!

[thejugglenaut91]

i just had a very nice crap so i'm not constipated

[BernardProfitendieu]

you can make the very same statement every time you hit the "Post Comment" button

[thejugglenaut91]

you were the one who was talking crap to begin with. And then you back it up like you don't know what you're talking about so shut up

[Vlaqq]

stravinski is not for bream or bream for stravinski - different temperament, sir.

and yes, bream is pushing - but in vane.

[Vlaqq]

sir, by giving certain evaluation, you are really going deep down especially on a personal level. if you don't like my playing or whatever it is, this is your personal attitude but has nothing to do with what I said. Is it clear?

[Gretawog]

@BernardProfitendieu cool story

[johnnyzing]

golly, I'd be an opportunist too. I remember when I was guilty of that in 1984. I was a drummer in the West Point Band and we just recorded a National TV Show for the Olympics. We were in NYC. As we walked out of the Theater in formation I saw Muhammad Ali standing alone. I broke formation, a no-no indeed in the army, just to talk with him. We had a nice short talk and I shook his hand. I was an opportunist indeed at that moment....and glad of it! His hands were so big. But we met!!

[BernardProfitendieu]

I doubt Mohammed Ali is telling the same story.

[classicalmannick101]

bream certainly has balls. good playing too. and stravinsky is certainly creaming over the playing. watch his face.

[Mkamalid]

who ever is complaining i challenge u make better decisions in bream's situation, AT that time. where opinions don't fly over u tube and facebook and msn, You want to say something you say it out loud

[codonauta]

Bream shouldn't have played such a ancient composition. John Dowland lived about XVI century. He should have played a 20th century composition,, in my opinion.

[kuan12345]

I challenge you to find a 20th century lute composition.

[codonauta]

I think it exists, if you search very well. If not, he should to have played an acoustic guitar composition of the 20th century ( there are hundreds of them ), if the his Bream's purpose was to convince Stravinsky to compose for that instrument.

[tuxguys]

Actually, according to the v/o narration (Orson Welles? Sure sounds like him), Stravinsky had a love of the lute and the literature written for it. And it's been my experience, on the other side of the (musical) aisle, that all great "progressive" innovators are thoroughly familiar with, and have a healthy, affectionate respect for, what has gone before them. Newton said it about Science, but it's just as true about the Arts: I (We) stand on the shoulders of giants.

[bally28]

good on bream, he had the balls to play in front of Stravinsky without error or warm up and not to preconceive or pigeon hole Stravinsky's just because he composed 20th century compositions, with a good ole fashioned lute piece.

[thepagesaretorn]

@kuan12345 Toru Takemitsu wrote several actually. Would you like to hear some?

[tenorismo]

@kuan12345 Im sure someware someone has composed somthing. Just no one know of it.

[elseverwoerd]

Perhaps you did not know that Stravinsky loved older music. For instance, he was inspired by and rearranged music by Gesualdo (renaissance) and it was Mozart who inspired him to write The Rake's Progress. Composers can love music from any century and still maintain a 'modern' voice of their own.

[codonauta]

Yes, you're right.

[settiklavio]

si vede che non ha alcun interesse ...

[diegoescolochog]

This is gold man. Pure gold.

[parmat88]

At first I was shocked watching this video.

But then I realized how incredible was meeting one of the most legendary composer of all times. A giant, an immense genius. And how ambitious can be a young and talented musician like Bream. Who is, in my opinion, the greatest classical guitar player of our time.

[thejugglenaut91]

bream himself said he was so embarrased by kind of imposing himself but he was just so compelled to meet him and play for him

[wanjabelaga]

have seen this many years ago as a child.

i did not forget this crazy scene until today

[OscilloscopeRhythms]

I love this video great piece of history and quite funny really

The voice over is pure comedy

I think Julian Bream comes across as fairly normal in this to me to be honest not sure why people have such a problem with it

[aljazeerkazan]

He plays "Flow My Tears" by John Dowland.

[luisortmul]

Julian Bream*, I meant :-)

[luisortmul]

Julian Beams comes out as a little bit of an idiot, and I hated the way he talks to Stravinsky with his upper class voices as if the composer was a little child...

having said all this, as I watched, I found this video extremely moving and I was almost moved to tears... why? I have no idea. A true highlight...

and the voice over while Bream is playing actually makes it even more poignant!

[philomelodia]

Julian naturally speaks with that accent. I've heard him speak many times and that's just how the man talks. He may've laid it on thicker, not to patronize but to be on his best behavior before the maestro. People often polish up their speech when addressing themselves to others they respect. I, for one, was rather touched by his sincerity.

[albenizski]

those people there don't know who julian bream is.. one of the greatest classical guitarist the world have seen.. julian bream admitted that he was embarassed by this hehe.. but it doesn't matter because he's also a great musician like stravinsky

[brunofelix20]

It sounds very epic.

[rguitphil]

I agree, Bream is fawning and rather embarrassing to watch, but I'm sure we can all forgive him his youth, and he plays so well. But I wish the producer had the good sense to not juxtapose a voice over when Bream was actually playing!

[echever7]

I think you're being a little harsh on Bream. It seems Stranvinsky didn't suffer a bit by this "Bream`s imposing himself" ". In fact, I think he really enjoyed the performance. Anyway, Bream was just a very young promising, extremely talented guitar-lute player that was showing off in front of that great man. As almost every young man would do.

[rguitphil]

Which is exactly why I wrote, "we can all forgive him his youth."

[echever7]

Yes, you're right. Let just enjoy this piece of history!!.

[pseudodenis]

perhaps, the main embarrassing thing here - is camera itself (a sort of theatricality - "just to make the film"). It is worth to note the replique of Stravinsky - "which film? I dont make film". This makes his behaviour quite natural - whereas Bream from the beginning pays to much attention to being shot.

[pabzum]

You've got it right.

[tuxguys]

Y'know you are all wrong on two key points: Stravinsky wasn't imposed upon, he obviously loved this; and so what the hell if Bream fawned over Stravinsky? Good God, people, it's Stravinsky! I wish I could fawn over him! I wish I could fawn over Maurice Ravel and Gabriel Faure! If I ever get to meet Ezra Laderman, I'll fawn over him!

[pabzum]

That's painful to watch. Bream is one of my guitar heroes, and to see him fawning and imposing himself on the old man makes me flinch. We do silly things when we're young. And what for? At that time of his life Strawinsky must have seen more than a fair share of virtuoso players on all instruments. Ah well. I bet Bream's been having to deal with that sort of thing now. Still, he nailed it.

[Jitpring]

Agreed. I love Bream, but this is painful to watch.

[UCHalcyon]

Just in case anyone cares, he's playing John Dowland's Flow My Teares (or another Dowland piece with that melody, anyway), one of my favorite tunes!

[tubafatness]

I love how Stravinsky seems to stop in his tracks upon listening to Bream play. Cool video, indeed.

[vandiemen]

Does anyone know where to get this Stravinsky documentary in it's entireity?

[bigred527]

This videogives me chivers. Two true masters.

[UncleJebJones]

Julian Bream is the best lute player I have ever heard!

[jaangunnar]

You should listen to Ronn McFarlane and Paul O'Dette, who are both incredible lutenists.

[ThisDream]

Nigel North, Hopkinson Smith, Rolf Lislevand, Stephen Stubbs, Yasunori Imamura, Robert Barto, Konrad Junghanel, Jakob Lundberg...all great lutenists. Bream was the first great modern lutenist though.

[jaangunnar]

Agreed on all points.

[Jafuet]

Julian Bream is smart man :D

[watercolour]

woah!! Julian Bream met Stravinsky!!

[neothomist1275]

What an incredible video!