Music Review : Guitarist Julian Bream Spans the Centuries

What with the imminent demise of the noble Ambassador Auditorium next month, now is the time for marked milestones and stock-taking nostalgia. It wasn’t enough that Julian Bream’s recital Thursday proffered moments of profound musicianship. One was keenly aware that Bream’s 11th Ambassador appearance might be his last in this acoustically sentient hall, which is especially clement to the pin-drop dynamic demands of guitar recitals.

Venue-minded sentimentality aside, it would be dishonest to report that Bream’s appearance Thursday rose to the highest standard maintained by one of the world’s transcendent guitarists. In the Baroque first half, Bream started out boldly enough, exacting the proper ornamentation-laden nuances on Robert de Visee’s Suite No. 9 in D Minor. Edges were rough and execution brittle, particularly during the reading of Bream’s sparkling transcription of the Bach Cello Suite, No. 3 in C Major.

Thankfully, the going got crisper and more expressive in the second half, given over to accessible 20th-Century works. In a real sense, Bartok stole the show: Bream’s transcription of six pieces from the Hungarian master’s series of 44 violin duos from 1931 proved entrancing, in spite of their brevity. An alternately dusky melancholy and folkloric muscularity exerted a vivid statement through Bream’s lucid guitar reading.

From the annals of neglected composers came the guitaristic lyricism of the “Suite Compostelana,” by Spanish composer Frederico Mompou (1893-1987). The late “nuevo tango” master Astor Piazzolla’s Three Tangos pulsed with rugged passions and embedded sophistication. When it came time for an encore to appease the ecstatic throng, Bream dipped into the 19th Century for Fernando Sor’s Minuet, for historical good measure.

Despite his missteps this night, he managed to put forth an undeniable presence and stalwart authority. Bream’s gift, by this point, some 40 years into his concertizing career, has less to do with virtuosic bravado than a bone-deep musical wisdom.