Barry Douglas Plays Brahms

It's a happy new year for reunions. Barry Douglas returns to Belfast to play Brahms's First Piano Concerto with his home band - the Ulster Orchestra.

The concert, on 12 January in the Waterfront Hall Belfast, will be conducted by János Fürst. He was the Ulster Orchestra's first leader when it was founded 40 years ago this season. Brahms's exhilarating and virtuosic Piano Concerto has been described as "one of the mightiest utterances since Beethoven's Ninth Symphony".

Before it, the Ulster Orchestra plays Beethoven's fiery Prometheus Overture and the concert ends with Dvořák's Sixth Symphony which is infused with the spirit of the Bohemian countryside and Czech dance rhythms. Elgar described it as "simply ravishing and so tuneful I cannot describe it; it must be heard."
Local pianist, Barry Douglas, is a favourite with Northern Irish audiences. He rose to international fame in 1986 when he won the Tchaikovsky piano competition in Moscow playing Tchaikovsky's First. Two decades on, he played the same piece with the Ulster Orchestra to a packed Waterfront Hall last year.

The concert on 12 January is the first in a four-concert mini-series of Brahms concertos for the Ulster Orchestra. The relaxed and lyrical Violin concerto is brought to life by Daniel Hope. The Orchestra's new Principal Conducto-Elect, Kenneth Montgomery, is joined by Benjamin Schmid on violin and Quirine Viersen on cello for the powerful and expressive Double Concerto. Finally, Marc-André Hamelin plays the Second Piano Concerto, described by Liszt as one of Brahms's very best works.

And with music by Beethoven, Dvořák, Sibelius, Mozart and more thrown in for good measure, there's no excuse for post-Christmas blues!

By www.ulster-orchestra.org.uk