Barry Douglas had won the Gold Medal in 1986 at the Tchaikovsky International Piano Competition in Moscow and had hit a first career high at the time of the Rachmaninov sessions, having turned from a widely admired talent into a mature artist. Still, while working with Evgeny Svetlanov he felt like a little boy again: “I marvelled at the way Maestro Svetlanov – with only a small movement of his hand – could bring 100 musicians with him as one”, Barry Douglas fondly remembers, “The opening of the second movement of the Third Piano Concerto is a good example of this. The sound is raw and rich and always full of colour.” Restrictions were immanent, but no major issue, as he reports: “For the recording itself, there was similarly very little rehearsal time but largely due to the fact that Maestro Svetlanov and I felt the works very similarly and were confident about the recording. The performances went extremely well with very few takes, even finishing early.”

Even though Sony BMG has a long-term relationship with Barry Douglas, this project with Evgeny Svetlanov is also part of their recent effort of strengthening their “heritage artists” on the RCA Red Seal label. At the same time, these vintage recordings will be accompanied by more recent material: Barry Douglas has already announced a new album for the near future.

Homepage: Sony BMG Masterworks