Pianist Barry Douglas leads Camerata Ireland in stellar concert at Seattle's Benaroya Hall; review by Melinda Bargreen, Seattle Times
Concert review |
From “Eine kleine Nachtmusik” to “Danny Boy,” a large and responsive crowd found much to enjoy in the debut visit of Camerata Ireland to Benaroya Hall.
Founded and led by Barry Douglas, who initially gained fame as the gold medalist of the 1986 Tchaikovsky Competition, Camerata Ireland — comprising young Irish musicians — is an ensemble that fluctuates in size (18 musicians played the Benaroya concert). What was immediately apparent Monday evening was the beauty of sound, clarity of execution and inimitable style of this group, which appeared on the Seattle Symphony’s Visiting Orchestras series.
The biggest surprise was Douglas himself; as a pianist, he made his reputation in part as a bravura artist famed for large-scale romantic-era performances. It was no surprise to hear him excel as soloist with his own group in the Mozart Piano Concerto No. 14, with a singing touch and an easy technique that spun out one nice phrase after another. But pianists don’t always make great conductors of string ensembles — conducting repertoire in which their instrument has no part.
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Douglas is clearly the exception. His no-nonsense technique clearly rivets the attention of his players, even when Douglas also is at the keyboard (the nifty conclusion to the concerto’s middle movement showed an enviable unity). It’s no feat to conduct the familiar “Nachtmusik” from memory, but Douglas didn’t use scores even for such trickier works as Stravinsky’s “Basel Concerto” and Prokofiev’s “Andante for Strings.” The finale, Tchaikovsky’s well-worn “Serenade for Strings,” was played with concise, pointed phrasing but also considerable grace, maintaining focus and warmth in the very soft passages of the “Elegie” movement.
The two encores were Phil Coulter’s “Home away from home” and Percy Grainger’s “Danny Boy” (more formally called “Irish Tune from County Derry”).
A good-sized group in the audience applauded enthusiastically between the movements of everything except the Tchaikovsky, to the dismay of other music lovers — but it’s hard to get too stuffy about these interruptions when Mozart himself was delighted (as he reported in a famous letter to his father) at audience applause in the middle of a symphonic movement. At least no one could be in any doubt that Camerata Ireland thoroughly delighted its audience.
Melinda Bargreen: mbargreen@seattletimes.com