Passion of the pianist

By WILLIAM DART

Barry Douglas created international headlines when he carried off the Gold Medal at the 1986 Tchaikovsky International Piano Competition, the first Westerner to do so since Van Cliburn.

Since then, the Irishman has established himself as a formidable presence on the concert circuit, a pianist who is not afraid to slip the Berg Piano Sonata in between Beethoven and Liszt, as lucky Sydneysiders experienced last week.

We are getting concertos only on Douglas' fourth visit to New Zealand, offering three performances with the NZSO this weekend - Brahms' Second Piano Concerto on Friday and, in the Saturday concert, Mozart's C major K 467 along with the solo piano part in Messiaen's Turangalila Symphony.

He likes the pacing of the New Zealand tour.

"You have the chance to do a lot of different repertoire, and because you have repeat performances it develops and changes. It's like a wee residency and I value that in an age when you often just jet in and jet out."

Douglas relishes being "part of the band" in the Messiaen.

"To be absolutely in the middle of it all is mind-blowing. Those big climaxes are hair-raising."

The whole experience reminds him of when he started off as a clarinettist in the Belfast Youth Orchestra. He "adores the camaraderie. You're part of a very exclusive club".

There is only one drawback. "It's great when you're playing but nerve-racking when you have a few bars' rest because you have to make sure you come in at the right time."

Which is where the conductor comes in.

Douglas has worked with Matthias Bamert on many occasions in Europe, describing him as "cool - not in terms of temperature but in terms of being absolutely balanced, well thought-out and on the ball".

Bamert's name comes up first when we talk of the Saturday night Mozart, which Douglas likens to the "most gorgeous little opera".

"Matthias and I were discussing how the sforzandi come from Don Giovanni and other things are very much Figaro.

"That's the beauty of the piano concertos, they are really mini-operas."

On the other hand, Brahms' great B flat Concerto is something you can never really predict.

"Like all great music there's a wealth of detail and a wealth of possibilities. I find that the best way of approaching it is as a conductor would, by considering the score away from the piano and thinking about what we can do this time to make it more alive, more interesting and more passionate."

Barry Douglas is a man of many passions and one is his Camerata Ireland, a small orchestra he founded in 1999 because he had met a lot of Irish musicians around Europe.

"I thought it would be a kick if we all got together and played some small concerts."

Four years on, the orchestra has its own summer festival, commissions works from Irish composers and has tours lined up in Italy, Germany and China next year.

Just how much of an Irishman is Douglas, who lives in what he describes as a self-imposed exile in France? Very much so it seems, as he confesses to getting "teary-eyed and sentimental about the old sod".

But there is a positive side, "a certain lyricism, a self-deprecating, self-imposed sort of masochistic melancholy in the Irish make-up which may lend itself to musical performance - I like to think it sort of helps a bit".

Perhaps it did when he took the complete Beethoven piano sonatas around Colorado and Wyoming in 1997, not only to main centres, but to community halls and churches in small towns.

"A lot of these people don't often get concerts and it wasn't always the Moonlight and the Pathetique in the smaller places, it could be Opus 78 or Opus 111. They reacted with the freshness of children hearing it for the first time."

The audience-performer dynamic fascinates him.

"An audience can take away or add so much. It's both wonderful and daunting. Sometimes they all go very quiet and you think, 'I must have done something that worked'. This can energise you.

"There are other times when you feel that you've done something fantastic and all you can hear is them shifting around.

"A friend once told me not to worry about playing to 2000 or 4000 people - you are only playing to one person because they're not linked up telepathically. I've always tried to keep that in mind."

Performance

* Who: Barry Douglas with the NZSO

* Where & when: Auckland Town Hall, Friday 6.30pm; Saturday 8pm