Brahms: Works for Solo Piano Volume 6 – Barry Douglas

   in Piano International (Jan, 2017)
The final release in Barry Douglas’ Brahms survey is another mash-up of pieces from different sets and periods. The works span the full gamut of the composer’s career from 1852 to 1893.

Five studies – a set of pieces assembled piecemeal and published together in 1877 – include re-workings of Weber, Chopin and Bach; the transcription for left hand of Bach’s great Chaconne is here set apart from the rest to conclude the programme. Douglas’ performance is the highlight of the disc, indeed one of the high points of the survey: Bach’s ‘whole world of the deepest thoughts and most powerful feelings’, as Brahms described it, transcribed with ‘overwhelming excitement and …