Pianist Barry Douglas just the man for epic Brahms

Brahms’ second piano concerto is a 45-minute epic that demands an epic performer of power and subtlety and in Irishman Barry Douglas we have the perfect job candidate.

Irish pianist Barry Douglas performing with Sydney Symphony Orchestra conducted by Lawrence Renes. Picture: Daniela Testa

• A touch of class
• God bless the child
• Singing and dancing in the rain
• Strictly by arrangement

Brahms’ second piano concerto is a 45-minute epic that demands an epic performer of power and subtlety to pull it off, and in Irishman Barry Douglas we have the perfect job candidate.

His survey of this great work with Sydney Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Dutch-Maltese conductor Lawrence Renes was as memorable as it was masterful.

The 58-year-old virtuoso, with his snowy mane and trademark stubble, is a familiar figure as a pianist, recording artist and a conductor and he is also a Brahms specialist. This showed in aces with his ability to inject power across the keyboard to cut across the rich, symphonic palette of the orchestra.

The subtlety and nuance were evident in the glorious third movement — probably the loveliest slow movement Brahms wrote — in which the piano answers and embroiders the heart-melting melody of the solo cello, played here by Rod MacGrath, a guest musician from the Western Australian Symphony Orchestra.

UNHURRIED

Renes judged the interplay between orchestra and soloist well. Ben Jacks’s burnished horn solo led us into an unhurried interpretation which never lagged.

The SSO under concertmaster Andrew Haveron were in top form in the symphonic opening movement which features long passages where the soloist is silent. After the horns came some lovely woodwind textures in the second movement and the allegretto finale — a rondo in the manner of Mozart — brought some well-earned light relief after a weighty half-hour.

The evening started with a 1998 work, Aeolian Caprices, by Australian composer Richard Mills, who was in the audience. This six-minute wild and wilful orchestral showcase was a fitting farewell to SSO principal harp Louise Johnson who is retiring from the orchestra after 50 years.

Renes kept a firm rein on the other work, Sibelius’s 7th Symphony, although this single movement miracle of compression didn’t quite reach the heights of Vladimir Ashkenazy’s reading in the SSO’s Sibelius cycle 15 years ago.

DETAILS

● CONCERT: Sydney Symphony Orchestra with Barry Douglas

● WHERE: Sydney Opera House Concert Hall

● WHEN: Friday, March 29