THE honour of giving the I first public concert at the Belfast Waterfront Hall fell to the guitarist Julian Bream, who is currently celebrating the 50th anniversary of his public debut, made back in 1947 at the age of 14.
A thorough audition of the Waterfront's main auditorium, which has seating capacity around twice that of the National Concert Hall in Dublin, must wait until next Friday, for it was in the venue's smaller performing space, the Studio, that Julian Bream, playing under the auspices of the Belfast Music Society, was heard.
The Studio, which can accommodate audiences of up to 500, is very much on the lines of a "black box", with flexible (though physically restricting) seating arrangements, partly tiered in the main section, with two narrow side balconies and seating for a choir behind the platform.
The boxiness of shape and gangway ridden ceiling (think of something like an up market version of TCD's Samuel Beckett Theatre and you'll be on the right lines) might have been expected to provide a difficult acoustic for an evening of solo guitar. But, from where I was seated in the back row, there were no audibility problems, whatsoever, and none were reported from people I spoke to who had been seated in other parts of the hall; understandably, though, the interval brought an exodus from the choir seats to vacant places which faced the platform.
The performer, who introduced his choice of music with informative informality, played a baroque first half (suites by De Visee and Bach - the performer's own arrangement of the Third Suite for solo cello) and moved into more familiar guitar territory for the second, arrangements of Granados and Albeniz, and original pieces by Walton (the set of Bagatelles which was written for Bream in 1972) and Villa Lobos.
Julian Bream is one of the great names in 20th century guitar playing, and in spite of a rather high glitch count (more intrusive in the first half than in the second), the fixity of his musical focus and characteristic warmth of personality made for an enjoyable evening. I particularly enjoyed his finely wrought handling of the Walton and his shapely contouring of the three pieces (two Preludes and the Choros No. 1) by Villa Lobos.
