By: Philippa Kiraly
On his 2006 visit to Benaroya Hall, Barry Douglas was the featured soloist with the Seattle Symphony in Rachmaninov’s Third Piano Concerto, one of the big romantic concertos which have been a strength of his and where he shines. Monday night he was at Benaroya again, this time as conductor/soloist with his own chamber orchestra, Camerata Ireland, playing Mozart.
Like other fine instrumentalists, Douglas has branched out from a solely performing career to conducting. Not all of them succeed, but by the evidence at Benaroya Monday, Douglas has what it takes.
He formed Camerata Ireland in 1999, with a roster of 40 Irish musicians, most of whom are also members of other top European orchestras. 18 of them, all string players, came on this, the group’s second U.S. tour.
With the orchestra in full evening dress, Douglas strode out on stage in suit and black T-shirt, proceeding to conduct, as he did the entire concert, without podium, music stand, score or baton. His interpretation of Mozart’s Eine Kleine Nachtmusik was a gem of elegant classicism, the orchestra playing lightly and cleanly with not much vibrato and allowing the music to flow out of its instruments. Sprightly tempos and excellent articulation added life, creating as delightful a performance on modern instruments as one could hope to hear.
Just before intermission, Douglas and the orchestra performed more Mozart, this time the Piano Concerto No. 14 in E-flat major, with Douglas playing on a lidless 9-foot Steinway grand piano and conducting from the keyboard. The same values pertained here as in Eine Kleine Nachtmusik but from the start, the large sound of the piano seemed out of balance next to the small group of other instruments. Douglas never played full out, but there were times when I couldn’t hear the upper strings. I would have preferred the piano to have its lid on and closed or, alternatively, that he played with this small orchestra on a smaller, gentler piano such as a Boesendorfer, or even a fortepiano, the advantage of the latter instrument being that the pianist can play to the fullest expressive capability of the instrument without drowning out anybody.
Conductors have feet of clay to their orchestras. It’s a hallmark of the musicians’ respect and appreciation for a conductor or soloist when they applaud with the audience at the end of a work, or defer accepting their own deserved plaudits. Camerata Ireland gave Douglas both.
Prokofiev so liked the the slow movement from his first string quartet that he adapted it for orchestra as the Andante for Strings. It dates from 1931, but there is much in the harmony and the way he uses the instruments which is echoed in the score to his Romeo and Juliet of several years later. Douglas does not micro-manage his musicians, yet there’s no doubt his musicians know exactly what he wants and when he wants it. At times he appeared to be just waving his arms to indicate a tempo, but in the Andante and elsewhere there was never any raggedness in the orchestra’s togetherness (bar a couple of minor instances). Tempos changed smoothly without hesitation, and the gentle, serene performance of the Andante was a pleasure to hear.
So was Stravinsky’s crisp and angular Basel Concerto, written for the 20th anniversary of the Basel Chamber Orchestra. Each of the three movements is a contrast to the others, from the highly articulated first movement to the last hurry-scurry one and the short but gorgeous “Arioso” second movement, a lyrical love song.
The final work, the familiar Serenade for Strings by Tchaikovsky, sounded positively lush after the classical Mozart and astringent Prokofiev and Stravinsky. Its fine performance was the only part of the program not interrupted by inopportune applause after every movement of each work. The philosophical view of many musicians to this is: “Oh well, at least we are getting new listeners for classical music,” which is a plus, but there’s no doubt it disrupts the flow of a three- or four-part work.
In the modern works as well as the classical and romantic, Douglas’s musicians played without any digging into the strings or scratchy tone such as is often heard when the conductor pushes for more and more. Douglas showed in these performance that forced sounds are not necessary to a modern work for it to have pizzazz, urgency or excitement.
Camerata Ireland is a polished ensemble and its musicianship, under Douglas, impeccable.
