{"id":17289,"date":"2012-09-04T21:04:12","date_gmt":"2012-09-05T01:04:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/?p=17289"},"modified":"2012-09-04T21:04:12","modified_gmt":"2012-09-05T01:04:12","slug":"as-chopin-observed-nothing-is-better-than-a-guitar-save-perhaps-two","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/as-chopin-observed-nothing-is-better-than-a-guitar-save-perhaps-two\/","title":{"rendered":"As Chopin observed: Nothing is better than a guitar, save perhaps two"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/em>Here are Julian Bream and John Williams playing the exquisite Suite for 2 Guitars by William Lawes<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Lawes was a 17th century composer, son of Thomas Lawes, a vicar choral at Salisbury Cathedral. He wrote quite a lot of secular and sacred music; this particular piece is probably among his best known compositions.<\/p>\n

I saw Julian Bream in person in Cardiff in the late \u201860s; I confess, for me, the highlight of his performance was a mistake he made in something I was attempting to play at the time.<\/p>\n

Interestingly, even though Bream and Williams are among the foremost classical guitarists of their generation, neither is a musical snob. Bream loved nothing better than to thump out some Django Reinhardt gypsy jazz with his mates and Williams has recorded many jazz and pop tunes.<\/p>\n