Barry Douglas has established a major international career since winning the Gold Medal at the 1986 Tchaikovsky International Piano Competition, Moscow. In 1999, he formed Camerata Ireland, an all-Irish chamber orchestra, with players from both Northern and Southern Ireland to celebrate "the wealth of Irish musical talent" where he remains Artistic Director. He is also the Artistic Director of the Clandeboye Festival and Castletown Concerts, Ireland. As a soloist, highlights of the 2011/12 season include engagements with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, SWR Baden-Baden, Orchestra y coro de la comunidad de Madrid and Ulster Orchestra amongst others. In August 2011, Barry returned to the BBC Proms with the BBC Symphony Orchestra performing the worldwide premiere of a new concerto written for him by Kevin Volans to celebrate his 50th birthday. Barry regularly tours Europe, USA, Russia and South America in recital with recent performances in Barcelona and Rio de Janeiro. This season, he opens and closes the BBC Radio 3 / LSO St. Lukes Beethoven sonata recital series followed by further recitals in Italy, Netherlands and Moscow.

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"...Douglas, with a wonderful variety of tone and touch, with going for truth rather than superficial beauty, with a spellbinding inwardness in the adagio con molta espressione, showed that emotional profundity and relative conventionality are not incompatible. "

Financial Times by Harry Eyres Jan 7th 2012

"Again and again, Brahms is drowned in a sea of colors so that the contours of his music are difficult to see. Barry Douglas, however, unerringly selects a different way: his Brahms is neither dreamy nor melancholy, it shines not only from within. Douglas proceeds with a wonderful precision in the narrative, his playing convincingly unveiled, yet with a keen sense of the mysteries of this music. Promising sounds from the outset of this new complete recording."

Radio NDR-Kultur by Christoph Vratz May 11th 2012

"Douglas's beautiful, rounded tone and assiduously effected tempo relationships will satisfy listeners who like a less classically conceived, more pianistically oriented Handel Variations"

Gramophone by Jed Distler May 8th 2012

"The big B minor Rhapsody, Op. 79 No. 1, provides an ideal opening salvo, its first theme sounding strong and confident without the blustery quality some pianists bring to it. Immediately one is struck by Douglas's 'bronze' tone quality, with chords that are full and rounded, perfectly balanced and never harsh. The first transition passage is voiced with infinite care, and the wistful second theme and its later transformation sing with natural, vocal expression, the result of thoughtful attention to Brahms's many markings rather than a wish to associate expression with an imposed tempo rubato."

International Record Review May 1st 2012

"Muscle and imagination come together in this well-planned Brahms recital by Barry Douglas. In among the passion of the two Op79 Rhapsodies he weaves the limpid introspection of some of the later intermezzos from Opp 116, 117 and 118, together with two of the dashing Op116 capriccios and the lovely early Ballade Op10 No4. He ends with the Haydn Variations, articulated with the panache and stylistic discretion that mark the whole programme."

The Telegraph Apr 28th 2012

"Douglas is a pianist who knows how to produce tremendous power, but he also knows to how to produce a lightened, clear line with a mastery of the keyboard that allows for equally breathtaking playing in the transparent sections as in the final fugue. As if we were not won over, to top it all the fascinating Irish pianist offered an amazing interpretation of "Pictures at an Exhibition" by Mussorgsky. The sublime Kantian black and white of the Beethoven gave way to a Fauvist coloring."

La Repubblica Mar 31st 2012

"Douglas brings manliness and sensitivity to it in equal measures, and is warmly recorded. "

Time Out by Colin Anderson Apr 5th 2012

"His technique, responding to Rachmaninov’s challenges as it from a great height, his manifest sincerity and his never unduly indulged lyrical line combined to make me wonder if I’d heard such a convincing account of the work before. "

The Sunday Times by Paul Driver

"Pianist Barry Douglas' technical virtuosity and musical sensitivity were evident from the outset of the concerto, and he continued to craft a performance of panache and beauty in equal measure. His delivery of sound and control of touch were marvellous throughout, particularly in the broadly lyrical second movement."

Backtrack by Rohan Shotton Oct 19th 2011

"Douglas has always had technique to die for, but plenty of pianists have that. What he showed here was something different - in three Capriccios from Op 116 he caught to virtual perfection the smouldering passions that swell this turbulent music upwards. The playing was leonine and emotional, pinned just this side of rationality by Douglas's strong appreciation of Brahms's organising instinct. "

International Piano by Terry Blain

"His way was even more muscular and power-packed than Ciric's, but he found a lovely improvisatory poetry in the Op 27 No 1 and a beautifully delineated train of thought in the wayward Op 101."

International Piano by Michael Church

"...Played the 'Hammerklavier' with impressive clarity and, in this finger-defying work, unclouded accuracy. [...] There was a thrilling combination of control and urgency in the last movement, Douglas articulating his enthrallment to the most uncomprimising music Beethoven wrote for the piano. In the slow movement, Douglas tactfully imprinted those hooks that reel the listener into its extended meditation, allowing the music to unfold in all its epic simplicity. [...] All part of his approach to Beethoven, poise and inquisitiveness balanced with a robust, involved enjoyment. [...]"

Classicalsource.com by Peter Reed