Barry Douglas: Rachmaninov Treasures From the Vaults

While dusting off the shelves in his huge archive, Sony BMG Masterworks’ General Manager Chris Craker discovered a veritable gem by complete coincidence: An over ten year old recording of the Rachmaninov Piano Concertos No 1&3 performed by Belfast-born Barry Douglas on Piano and in cunjunction with the Russian State Symphony Orchestra under Evgeny Svetlanov. Amazed by its qualities, Craker gave the green light for its release – and paved the way for one of the moments to look forward to in the classical music season 2008. “I have known Barry Douglas for more than 20 years, having performed with him myself”, Craker enthused, “I have always greatly admired his recordings and was therefore wonderfully surprised and delighted to find the Rachmaninov recording in the vaults.” Barry Douglas, too, was happy to dig up some golden memories from the recording sessions to the album: “I was on cloud nine all the time to be working with this orchestra and this great musician and was very happy indeed that we saw the music in exactly the same way. I will never forget the sessions and these are performances I will always treasure”.The album is due internationally on 2nd of June.

Barry Douglas had won the Gold Medal in 1986 at the Tchaikovsky International Piano Competition in Moscow and had hit a first career high at the time of the Rachmaninov sessions, having turned from a widely admired talent into a mature artist. Still, while working with Evgeny Svetlanov he felt like a little boy again: “I marvelled at the way Maestro Svetlanov – with only a small movement of his hand – could bring 100 musicians with him as one”, Barry Douglas fondly remembers, “The opening of the second movement of the Third Piano Concerto is a good example of this. The sound is raw and rich and always full of colour.” Restrictions were immanent, but no major issue, as he reports: “For the recording itself, there was similarly very little rehearsal time but largely due to the fact that Maestro Svetlanov and I felt the works very similarly and were confident about the recording. The performances went extremely well with very few takes, even finishing early.”

Even though Sony BMG has a long-term relationship with Barry Douglas, this project with Evgeny Svetlanov is also part of their recent effort of strengthening their “heritage artists” on the RCA Red Seal label. At the same time, these vintage recordings will be accompanied by more recent material: Barry Douglas has already announced a new album for the near future.

Homepage: Sony BMG Masterworks
By Tobias Fischer, published 2008-04-23

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