Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. Queen Elizabeth's Galliard
2. Lachrimae Antiquae Pavan
3. Mrs. White's Nothinge
4. Mrs. Vaux's Gigge
5. Farewell (A Fancy)
6. Orlando sleepeth
7. Fantasia
8. King of Denmark's Galliard
9. Melancholy Galliard
10. My Ladye Hunsdon's Puffe
11. Semper Dowland, Semper Dolens
12. Almain (An Unnamed Piece)
13. Sir Henry Umpton's Funeral
14. Forlorne Hope Fancy
15. 11. If floods of tears
16. 13. Sleep wayward thoughts
17. 19. Awake, sweet love
18. 7. Dear, if you change
19. 13. O what hath overwrought
20. 5. Shall I strive with words to move
21. 8. Flow not so fast, ye fountains
22. 21. Away with these self-loving lads
23. 21. Come when I call
24. 12. Rest awhile you cruel cares
25. 4. If my complaints could passions move
26. 8. Burst forth my tears

Disc 2:

1. 22. Humor say what mak'st thou here
2. 5. Can she excuse my wrongs
3. 18. His golden locks
4. 7. Stay, Time, awhile thy flying
5. 19. The lowest trees have tops
6. 1. Unquiet thoughts
7. 9. Praise blindness eyes
8. 18. My heart and tongue were twins
9. 5. Chaconne
10. Prelude In C Minor Bwv 999 (Played In D Minor)
11. 4. Sarabande
12. 5. Bour�e
13. 1. Prelude
14. 2. Fugue
15. 1. Prelude
16. 2. Fugue - attacca:
17. 3. Allegro

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #124436 in Music
• Brand: BREAM,JULIAN
• Released on: 2008-07-08
• Number of discs: 2
• Dimensions: .26 pounds

Album Description
To celebrate his 75th birthday (July 2008), this Original Masters 2-CD release offers three of his earliest recordings--none of which has appeared on CD before. The set comprises Bream's solo Dowland LP (1954)--his debut solo recording, played on lute--and his solo Bach LP (1956), both originally recorded on the Westminster label and justly celebrated at the time. They are brought together with a wide selection of Dowland ayres, sung by The Golden Age Singers with Bream's lute accompaniment. The CD booklet has a newly commissioned note by Tully Potter, a personal friend of Julian Bream, and includes reproductions of the original LP covers, LP labels and photos of the artists.

About the Artist
Julian Bream is one of the greatest masters of the guitar, admired for the intensity of his playing and the beauty of his tone. His advocacy of the Elizabethan repertory pioneered early music in recital form and brought the lute into the world's concert halls. Bream has influenced several generations of guitarists and musicians in all disciplines, including the pop artist Sting, whose Dowland album was the classical best-seller of 2007. Bream himself has sold over a million units throughout his career, and his recordings have won numerous prizes (among them four Grammy® Awards and two Edison Awards).

Customer Reviews

Two Early Albums from the Matchless Mr. Bream
My qualifications to critique these, Bream's solo Dowland (lute) and first solo Bach (guitar) albums on the Westminster label, are limited: I torture a classical guitar for one hour each morning before work, and listen to classical music throughout the day. Bream playing the lute sounds much like Bream playing the guitar (he uses his nails), though of course the timbre of the lute is different. These mono recordings sound great; my teacher, who is world-class, rates the Chaconne the best he's ever heard. However, the Golden Age Singers, singing away-oh on the second half of the Dowland disc and the first half of the Bach disc, sound old fashioned to me, like Laurence Olivier as Richard III.

some info about these recordings and some emendations
For reasons that will soon be made clear I don't have this set, but here is some hopefully useful information for the potential buyer - and a few emendations to the info provided by the editorial note.

In fact, part of the material featured here HAS previously been reissued on CD: the solo lute recital (14 pieces) came on an MCA "Double Decker" in 1990 (JUlian Bream - Fret Works (2 CD Set) (MCA)), and this is what I have. There, it was paired with the Spanish recital that DG has also reissued (shorn of three short pieces) on Spanish Guitar Music.

If my (and MCA's) information is right, another mistake made by the editorial notes is in attributing the recording of that solo lute recital to 1954. According to MCA, it is 1957. In fact, the editorial review seems to have made a confusion with the rest of the Dowland program, which in a small part (CD 1 tracks 15-19) dates indeed from 1954.

So here are a few facts: this DG-Westminster reissue collates the contents of two Westminster LPs, XWN 18428 (Bach) and XWN 18429 (Dowland lute recital), plus excerpts from three (out of a series of four) more Westminster LPs devoted to Dowland's Ayres for Four Voices, performed by the Golden Age Singers conducted by one of them, Margaret Field-Hyde, and accompanied by Bream. As mentioned, CD 1 tracks 15-19 were on volume 1, XWN 18711, which is the one that was recorded in 1954. Tracks 20-26 came on volume 2, XWN 18761, and those on CD 2 were on volume 4, 18763, recorded circa 1958.

Anyway, this set is obviously the one to favor over the earlier MCA release mainly if you are interested in the Bach recital (which has here its first CD reissue). Where I've been able to check the transfers of these DG-Westminster are also better than the ones from MCA Double Decker, although the particular Bream recital was especially fine. As for the Dowland Ayres, there is something frustrating for the collector and completist in getting a reissue only of excerpts (20 out of a total of 60 on the original LPs). Truth is, I do not know for sure that Bream accompanied all these Ayres, so maybe DG selected only the ones that he did. And I am more than ready to trust the previous reviewer and his comments on the singing style.