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More related to this product:

• Julian Bream: The Ultimate Guitar Collection-Volume 2
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• Essential Guitar: 33 Guitar Masterpieces
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Disc 1:

1. Allegro giusto
2. Largo
3. Allegro
4. No.5: Leyenda
5. The Miller's Dance
6. No 01 in E minor, Andantino espressivo
7. No 02 in D, Poco animato
8. Allegro con spirito
9. Adagio
10. Allegro con brio

Disc 2:

1. Cataluña
2. Granada
3. Sevilla
4. Cádiz
5. No 04, Cordoba
6. Dedicatoria
7. La Maja de Goya
8. No.4, Villanesca
9. Fandango
10. Passacaglia
11. Zapateado

Customer Rating: - Like a rainy day in a good bookstore
"Always pleasant, never a false cord." That's what I think each time I listen to this collection. I guess I should be listening more closely, but I find the music and the virtuosity with which it is played to be a springboard to other thoughts and activities. I can read with it in the background, write with it or simply drift into thought. And that is really quite enough for me.

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Customer Rating: - Not "Ultimate", but Wonderful!

As good a guitarist as Julian Bream is, one must begin by acknowledging that the title of this 2-CD set containing 32 admittedly seminal pieces written for hand-played strings ( primarily, the lute) is a tad hyperbolistic. An "Ultimate" collection of anything would have to be more complete, by definition, than any two CDs can be and, again, it almost goes without saying that no two people are apt to be in total agreement about what should or should not have been included in any such collection. All caveats considered and aside, this is, indeed, a thoughtfully selected and masterfully performed collection of what is, unarguably, some of the very best classical pieces ever written for the lute. Bream plays some of them on the guitar and others on a renaissance lute - the latter giving a somewhat truer indication of the stylings and musical nuances intended by the various composers. But, even the pieces he plays on the guitar - an instrument that, in it's current form, did not exist when many of the pieces were originally composed - are sensitive and lyrical interpretations that sound as if they MIGHT have been composed for the guitar.

Without spending space here reiterating the specific pieces, their titles and lengths, I will simply list the composers whose works Bream presents so nicely in this collection. They span a range of about five centuries beginning in the time of England's Elizabeth I and spanning the years through to the 20th Century's premier Spanish and Brazilian classical guitar composers. The list reads like a `Whose Who" of classical plucked-string instrument music and of composers whose keyboard compositions work particularly well on the strings of a lute or guitar, and includes;
- John Dowland
- Francis Cutting
- Antonio Vivaldi
- Gaspar Sanz (*)
- Mateo Albeniz (*)
- Manuel de Falla
- Enrique Granados (*)
- Hector Villa-Lobos, and
- Joaquin Rodrigo
(*) = Pieces originally written for keyboard play.

Every classical guitarist has his own recognizable style and approach to the instrument and the material. An experience listener would not confuse Bream's work with that of Andres Segovia, for example: but it is not that one is better than the other. Each, in his own distinctive way, is simply superb. Though the Spanish influence is clearly audible with both musicians, Bream's stylings have a more contemporary lilt and inflection than do those of Segovia; he makes each piece his own. One suspects that each time he plays a piece it comes out differently according to the moment, his mood, the instrument and God knows what else. Segovia, on the other hand, was well known for his constancy once he had found a version of each piece that fully suited his own ear and temperament.
While I am admittedly a Segovia fan, I find Bream's renditions to be noticeably fresher and each infused with an aura of presence in the here-and-now which I find especially enjoyable.

The collection is neither complete not `ultimate', but it is VERY good and well worth having in any collection of classical guitar music. In fact, for audiophiles not familiar with this genre, it is a fair place to begin to develop an ear for and a listener's knowledge of and experience with the classical guitar.

I recommend it highly.

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Customer Rating: - Everyone would love this album!
This album is fantastic. Easy to listen to and wonderful background music for working or dinner parties

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Customer Rating: - Incredible
This is the leading guitar player of his generation at his best.

He is especially amazing in the second CD, with some of the solo guitar transcriptions of Albeniz. His rendition of Rodrigo's three pieces is also sublime.

I can't imagine anybody buying this cd then regretting it.