CD Reviews: Barry Douglas, Camerata Ireland
Michael Quinn
Beethoven Piano Concertos Nos 1 & 5, ‘Emperor’
Satirino SR063
Camerata
Ireland’s lightly shaped, fleetly delivered Beethoven concerto series
reaches its mid-way point with performances of the First and the Fifth,
the noble Emperor, that bear the Belfast virtuoso’s signature
flair for rhapsodic expressivity but surprise, too, with their
self-effacing delicacy and over-arching tone of congeniality.
Polished is the word that immediately suggests itself here as Douglas and his cross-border orchestra of soloists deliver readings that verge, engagingly enough, on the translucent. Those who like their Beethoven big, broad and bracing may find some disappointment here, but those who recognise in his...
