Elegy No 2 - Liszt
En reve - Liszt
The Rainbow Comes and Goes - Philip Martin
Sonata in B minor - Liszt
Arabeske - Schumann
Fantasy in C Op 17 - Schumann
There's not much that's predictable about a Barry Douglas programme.
At the NCH on Thursday the exploratory enigmas of late Liszt and Philip Martin's test piece for the 1988 Dublin International Piano Competition were placed before that tantalising pianistic Everest of the mid-19th century, Liszt's Sonata in B minor. And, after the interval, Schumann's short Arabeske prefaced the turbulent emotions of his great Fantasy in C.
The link between the two major works of the evening is that they were dedicated by their respective composers to each other.
Douglas's playing was generously strewn with moments when the balance between light and shade in the musical landscape was re-drawn to create novelty of perspective and freshness of impact. This was most striking in Martin's The Rainbow Comes and Goes, when the music at all times seemed to benefit from the starker than usual distinction between what needed to stand out and what was best tucked away.
In the two big works, the attractions of the moment tended to be just that, deliciously conceived details, tellingly executed, which did not always knit successfully into the bigger scheme of things. This was particularly the case in the Liszt Sonata, a piece which tends to sound long-winded when the large spans of its complex structure are not kept sharply in focus.
On one level, Douglas's handling of the Schumann Fantasy in C could be viewed as an exercise in clarification. He is clear about what he wants to prioritise and he has the breadth of technique to ensure that he is lucid in the delivery of his choices.
In a work as richly layered as this, the danger is that simply too much will be relegated to the background, that important strands of material will fade as the chosen line is highlighted.
That said, Douglas has the resources to tackle fearlessly the mighty leaps of the central march (which Schumann's wife declared "makes me hot and cold all over"), and, in the Fantasy as a whole, as throughout the concert, the audience was treated to a great deal of playing which showed Douglas more than usual with his softer side out.
