Committed to educating and nurturing upcoming young musicians, Barry was excited to participate at this year’s PianoTexas Festival, which provided the opportunity for a selection of young students to participate in two masterclasses. The standard was incredibly high with testing repertoire from the likes of Brahms, Beethoven and Schubert being performed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2n9VFk9zkzc&feature=youtu.be

June 25th saw Barry playing Brahms’s Chaconne and Piano Pieces Op.76, followed by Schubert’s Sonata in A major, D.959 in the Distinguished Artist Recital series. Schubert’s three late piano sonatas, D.959 being one of them, were overlooked for many years as they were considered inferior to those of Beethoven. Recently however, their highly expressive nature has gained recognition and they are considered to demonstrate Schubert’s mature and individual late style.

Just the week before, Barry had been in Finland for concerts at The Naantali Music Festival, performing chamber as well as concerto repertoire. On the final night, Barry was joined on stage by the fantastic Sinfonietta Crakovia  conducted by Jurek Dybal for Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 2 in B flat Major, Op. 19. A young Beethoven began writing this work in 1795 but it was not completed for another three years. It is believed Beethoven himself commented that the piece was ‘not one of the best’ but despite this, it has been a huge success with audiences since its completion and remains a popular part of piano repertoire today.