The Guitar in Spain, with Julian Bream
Home Vision 8339066, 80339068, 8339070, 8339072
VHS stereo hifi, four 60-minute cassettes, $39.95 per cassette
Guitar fanciers who enjoy music, history and travelogue artfully interwoven will find much to admire here.
In these eight 30-minute films (two on each cassette), shot entirely on location in Spain and originally produced for British television, English classical guitarist Julian Bream takes viewers on an illustrated tour of the evolution of the Spanish guitar.
He plays a variety of instruments, from the vihuela, or courtly guitar of Spain`s Golden Age, to the five-string guitarra espanola, to the modern, six- string classical guitar. His repertory ranges over five centuries of guitar repertory, from Milan and Narvaez to Rodrigo and Ohana.
If anyone doubts that a non-Spanish guitarist can evoke the soul of Spain, Bream triumphantly proves otherwise.
The project is beautifully conceived and expertly presented. Director Barrie Gavin takes obvious care in matching music to location–the guitarist plays Falla in the composer`s house in Granada; Mudarra in Seville Cathedral; Tarrega in the ornate splendor of the Alhambra.
Together with Bream`s informed and ingratiating narration, the magnificent old buildings and landscapes are made to seem more than a backdrop to the music, but an integral part of it.