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Narciso Yepes, Christopher Parkening, Julian Bream

by James
(Tucson, Arizona)

Narciso Yepes - I owned the Deutsche Grammophon LP "Bach; Works for Lute" when I was a young man. The album was lent to a friend and never came back, but I remember his playing of Bach as my ideal balance of sensitivity and mastery - musicianship. The hauntingly beautiful sarabande from Suite for Lute in G minor, BVW 995, still echoes in my memory.

Christopher Parkening - He was my first inspiration to take up the guitar. Particularly his two albums "In the Spanish Style" and "Parkening Plays Bach" wore down the needle in my record player. A music teacher of mine once said "You must be a musician first, then bring that to your instrument and work within its limitations." With Parkening, one forgets the instrument, hears the disembodied music, and then, with pre-conceived notions slipping away, one begins to hear the intimacy, tonal beauty and expressive range of our wonderful instrument in his hands.

Julian Bream - One album that I still possess is Julian Bream's "The Art of the Spanish Guitar." Bream's playing is distinct from my first two choices. I haven't listened to this album in years, but I still recall his sharp attack, and deliberate phrasing. Power, and momentum, are two words that come to mind when I think of his playing. His energy is akin to that of the flamenco guitarist, but with an admixture of formal, classical sensibility. Maybe this is part of the attraction for me; I dearly love flamenco, especially when the three components of cante, baile y toque are all present - but I digress. The pieces Bream chooses are always appropriate for the guitar - not always so in our genre. A recollection from this album is Britten's "Nocturnal," a theme and variations on Dowland's "Come, heavy sleep." If you are familiar with this piece, you'll remember that the theme isn't expressed until the end. It's cacophony of modern variations of the theme serve, among other things, to make the simple, achingly beautiful theme at the end that much more exquisite.