Rian Evans, critic for The Guardian, gave four stars to Barry Douglas’ concert with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and conductor laureate Andrew Litton at Colston Hall.

Evans writes, “But soloist Barry Douglas, for whom this work was his first passport to international recognition when he won the Tchaikovsky competion in 1986, seemed as concerned as Litton to highlight the extremes of shading in the work: he created a sense of danger in the first movement with some thunderously massive sounds, pitting the piano against the orchestra in the manner of Brahms’ two concertos. This pushing of emotions to the very limits was just as persuasively realised in the poised poetic lines, with the final Allegro con Fuoco taken fast and furious, and Litton enjoying the risks as much as his pianist.”

Click here to read the full review