Barry Douglas has established a major international career since winning the Gold Medal at the 1986 Tchaikovsky International Piano Competition, Moscow.  In 1999, he formed Camerata Ireland, an all-Irish chamber orchestra, with players from both Northern and Southern Ireland to celebrate "the wealth of Irish musical talent" where he remains Artistic Director. He is also the Artistic Director of the Clandeboye Festival and Castletown Concerts, Ireland.

 

As a soloist, highlights of 2010/11 season include his return to the London Symphony Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Cincinnati Symphony, Singapore Symphony, Duisburg Philharmonic, RSB Berlin and Ulster Orchestra amongst others.  In the summer, he returns to the BBC Proms with the BBC Symphony Orchestra performing the worldwide premiere of a new concerto written for him by Kevin Volans to celebrate his 50th birthday.  Barry regularly tours France, Ireland, UK, US and Russia in recital with recent performances in Manchester, Dublin, St. Petersburg and Moscow.  This season, he will include Spain and South America with visits to Barcelona and Rio de Janeiro.

 

In recent seasons, Barry has given concerts with Seattle Symphony, Halle, Radio Sinfonie Orchestra, Berlin, Melbourne Symphony, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra,Czech National Symphony Orchestra; Atlanta Symphony; Brussels Philharmonic; China Philharmonic; Shanghai Symphony; Baltimore Symphony; Hong Kong Philharmonic, Houston Symphony, Helsinki Philharmonic and Dresden Philharmonic amongst others.

 

Barry’s reputation as a play/conductor has grown since forming Camerata Ireland and this autumn he will make his debut with the RTE National Symphony Orchestra in their main subscription series and will return again in the Spring and with the St Petersburg Symphony Orchestra .  In recent seasons, he has made successful debuts with the Academy of St.Martin-in-the-Fields, Indianapolis Symphony, Vancouver Symphony, Chamber Orchestra of the Romanian National Radio Orchestra at the Enescu Festival, Bangkok Symphony, I Pommerigi di Milano and Moscow Philharmonic orchestras.

 

Each season, Camerata Ireland promote their International Series with concerts in Dublin, London and Paris and in 2010/11 they will extend this to Madrid as part of a tour in Spain.  The orchestra regularly visits the US on tour and this season they return again with concerts in New York, Nashville, Chicago and Florida. They are the resident ensemble at the Clandeboye Festival and at Castletown Concerts, Ireland.

 

In 2007, Barry presented his first television series for RTE Ireland “Symphony Sessions” – a programme showing behind the scenes of orchestral life. Barry conducted and played with the RTE National Orchestra and returned in 2008 for another series in this role.  Last season he presented a series for BBC Northern Ireland which showed the development of young Irish musicians.

 

Barry has recorded extensively throughout his career and has recorded all the Beethoven Concertos with Camerata Ireland. In 2008, Sony/BMG released his recording of Rachmaninov 1 and 3 with the Russian National Orchestra and Svetlanov. Current recording projects are the Penderecki Piano Concerto with Warsaw Philharmonic and Maestro Antoni Wit for the Naxos label and Nina Rota's Concerto-soirée per pianoforte e orchestra Concerto with the Filarmonica 900 del Teatro Regio and Maestro Gianandrea Noseda for the Chandos label. Future recording plans with Chandos include the complete Brahms and Schubert piano works.

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Behind the Music

Concerto No. 3 for Piano and Orchestra in D Minor, Op. 30
Sergei Rachmaninoff
Born April 1, 1873, in Oneg, Russia
Died March 28, 1943 in Beverly Hills, California

This work was first performed on November 20, 1909, by the New York Symphony Society, with Walter Damrosch conducting and the composer as soloist. It is scored woodwinds in pairs, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion and strings.


 Concerto No. 3 was first performed by the Boise Philharmonic on April 12, 1976 with soloist Augustin Anievas. It was most recently performed on September 21, 2001 with soloist William Wolfram.

Sergei Rachmaninoff once told his editor that he did not know which was his “true calling – that of a composer, pianist, or conductor . . . I am constantly troubled by the misgiving that, in venturing into too many fields, I may have failed to make the best use of my life.” He composed in nearly every musical genre, but it is primarily because of his works for piano that audiences know him today. Rachmaninoff developed a personal idiom of keyboard writing, patterned somewhat after Chopin and Liszt but strongly individual and drawn from his own tendencies as a pianist. Pianists often note that long fingers help when playing the composer’s music. Rachmaninoff had the impressive reach of a twelfth – over an octave and a half. One particularly effective aspect of his music is his infallible ability to create surging and poignant melodies along with captivating orchestral textures.

Of Rachmaninoff’s three concertos for piano and orchestra, the second has become the most popular. This beloved work is characterized by its rich beauty – as well as great technical brilliance and difficulty. However, it was a particularly difficult work for Rachmaninoff, who suffered from writer’s block. His Symphony No.1 (1897) was a complete failure. Despite his bright prospects as the most promising leader of a new generation of Russian composers, the harsh reception could not have been more brutal. Cesar Cui declared that the work sounded like the product of “a conservatory in Hell.” Only through three years of hypnosis was Rachmaninoff able to overcome the resulting depression. The first major work after his emotional exile was the Second Piano Concerto, which has proven to be his most beloved concerto.

While the Second Concerto is the most adored, the Third is the most difficult. In this piece it is apparent that Rachmaninoff’s pianistic abilities were astounding. Written in 1909 for his first tour of America that autumn, Rachmaninoff’s work was meant to be the ultimate showpiece for the famous Russian virtuoso. After writing the concerto at his Russian estate, Rachmaninoff learned to play the work at a silent keyboard he packed for the long ocean journey to the United States. Its premiere in New York that November served as Rachmaninoff’s American debut. Critics and audiences were quick to praise the performer and composer. Today’s audiences will find the music familiar, as it was used in the motion picture entitled Shine about pianist David Helfgott’s struggles with mental illness.

Untraditional in many ways, the concerto strays from the usual classical musical forms. Most concerti begin with the statement of the major musical themes by the orchestra, followed by a restatement by the pianist. Rachmaninoff dispenses with this tradition by introducing the soloist in the third measure. Melancholy and seemingly simple, the melody is stated in octaves above an undulating accompaniment. After the orchestra takes up the theme, the pianist plays a difficult arpeggiated obbligato. After considerable development, a sharp martial melody appears in the strings with rhythmic interjections from the piano. Eventually a new melody, almost incidental when it first appears, brings a warm lushness to the proceedings. It is this theme that Rachmaninoff uses later as the emotional center of the movement. Of particular interest later in the movement is the mammoth cadenza of nearly insurmountable difficulty.

The second movement opens with strings and oboe playing a simpering melody of great beauty. After passing to the piano, the theme is expanded and developed. Near the end of this movement, the first theme of the first movement returns, this time transformed into a lithe waltz with piano filigree high above. A brilliant coda acts as a bridge to the finale, which occurs without pause.

A galloping martial theme in the piano begins the dazzling finale. Rachmaninoff keeps the accompaniment light, but with a few brief fanfares thrown into the mix. A second theme, marked scherzando, is peppered with diabolically difficult chordal patterns and runs. When the recapitulation occurs, the piano is strangely absent, only to return with renewed strength. Another short cadenza leads to a blazing final flourish.

©2011 Orpheus Music Prose & Craig Doolin
www.orpheusnotes.com

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