Barry Douglas - Johannes Brahms: Works for Solo Piano, Vol. 1 (2012)
EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue&Log) ~ 197 Mb | Mp3 (CBR320) ~ 183 Mb | Artwork included
Genre: Classical | Label: Chandos | # CHAN10716 | Time: 01:17:39
EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue&Log) ~ 197 Mb | Mp3 (CBR320) ~ 183 Mb | Artwork included
Genre: Classical | Label: Chandos | # CHAN10716 | Time: 01:17:39
Irish pianist Barry Douglas has largely avoided recording, but has made a substantial reputation on the concert stage. You'd think he might have cultivated a commanding, public style, but in this first-in-a-series album of Brahms piano works, he instead offers quiet, finely wrought interpretations. The programming concept itself is a bit involved, but Douglas pulls it off: instead of offering short works in complete sets, he picks and chooses in order to create a convincing sequence of moods and modes of expression. Here, Douglas sets Brahms' late works against broader works from earlier in the composer's career. His control over the Intermezzo, Capriccio, and Romance sets of Opp. 116, 117, and 118, is extraordinary, and few pianists have ever evoked so well the quintessential reaction to late Brahms: that when you hear the performance just once, you have an uncanny feeling of barely having scratched the surface. In Douglas' hands, the larger Rhapsodies, Op. 79, and the Ballade in B major, Op. 10/4, almost inspire relaxation: here Douglas turns up the volume and revels a bit in the melodies.