Video Pick of the Week: Julian Bream and John Williams Play Debussy’s ‘Clair de lune’

Two of the greatest classical guitarists England has ever produced, Julian Bream and John Williams, team up here for an unforgettable version of French composer Claude Debussy’s impressionist masterpiece Clair de lune. The Debussy piece, which he began in 1890 but didn’t complete and publish until 1905, was, like so many famous “guitar” pieces, written for the piano originally. In this case, Clair de lune was the third movement of a work called Suite bergamasque, and originally titled Promenade sentimentale by the composer. Both the eventual movement name and the overall suite title come from an 1869 poem called “Clair de lune,” by Paul Verlaine. An album recording of Williams and Bream playing Clair de lune appears on the excellent two-CD set, Together: The Ultimate Collection.