Julian Bream : Albeniz Guitar Collection : Faber

ALBENIZ ( Arr. Julian Bream – Edited by John Mills): Suite Espanola Op47 a) Granada b) Cataluna c) Sevilla d) Cadiz : Recuerdos de Viaje Op71 – Rumores de la Caleta: Espana –Six Feuillets d’Album Op165 : a) Tango b) Capricho Catalan c) Zortzico : Mallorca Op202 : Chants d’Espagne Op232/4 – Cordoba

Faber Music : 48 pages

This volume is of great importance to guitarists as the pieces represent 10 arrangements that Julian Bream made decades ago and yet have never been published before. In his preface John Mills explains that none of the manuscripts were dated and that he has painstakingly reproduced the pieces exactly as they appeared in Julian Bream’s original manuscripts, and not only that but the last three pages are a fascinating commentary on a considerable number of places where suggestions have been made as to where the pieces might be changed as an alternative.

Of course the huge majority of these works will be well – known to guitarists already in other arrangements by many other players, but certainly these published hereof Julian Bream’s are historic in their importance.

Nothing here is at all easy , as they were written for Julian Bream to play ( as indeed he often did) and so advanced is the word one would use to describe them here.

Cataluna is in a dropped D 6^th , and a dropped G 5^th tuning, as indeed is Sevilla from the Suite Espanola Op47,and also Capricho Catalan from Feuillets d’Album Op165 whereas the Tango from the same opus has just  a dropped D 6^th, as has the Zortzico, the Mallorca Op202 and finally the Cordoba from Chants d’Espagne Op232/4.The final three pieces are in normal tuning.

So in essence you have a wonderful book here of superb arrangements that you really do have to be a wonderful player to play properly, but I can imagine that there are a great deal of you players out there, who might want this book, just to have a go at some of these, even if you are not at advanced level yet, and so I can thoroughly recommend this book, and I hope that it is going to be the first of many!

Chris Dumigan