The Clandeboye festival reflects the commitment of its founder, Belfast-born pianist Barry Douglas, to young Irish musicians. He talks to Eileen Battersby.
For the next eight days, the stable yard of one of Northern Ireland's most atmospheric stately homes becomes a village filled with music. Clandeboye, near Bangor, Co Down has been host to the Clandeboye Music Festival for the past five years. Home of the Marchioness of Dufferin and Ava, Clandeboye, a late Georgian house dating from about 1820, dominates the estate. Included in this year's festival programme is a Gala Baroque Concert featuring Bach's double violin concerto as well as a recital by the festival's founder and director, international pianist, Barry Douglas.
Belfast-born Douglas always wanted to give something back to Ireland, and was intent on helping young Irish musicians. "You need to be able to perform; and it is also so important to perform with musicians from other countries." He had long dreamt of creating a festival dedicated to the encouragement of young talent and Clandeboye is exactly that. For the next week, 10 selected young musicians will not only attend master classes under the direction of several of Barry's fellow international teachers and performers, they will play music, discuss performance and interpretation and finally one of them will emerge as the Clandeboye Young Musician of 2007.
Helen's Tower at Clandeboye, which, with its pepper pot-like detail was completed in 1862 in honour of one of the three beautiful granddau-ghters of playwright Richard Brinsley Sheridan, inspired Tennyson to write "Helen's Tower here I stand/Dominant over sea and land . . ."
Douglas is delighted with the venue. He has been based in Paris for many years, speaks fluent French and German, plays football with his children in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower, and yet remains very much a Belfast man.
Early in his career he became interested in conducting and enjoys combining it with his career as a soloist. His desire to encourage young Irish musical talent decided Barry on founding Camerata Ireland in 1999. In doing so he has created a world-class, cross-border chamber orchestra, which enjoys the patronage both of the Queen Elizabeth II and the President, Mary McAleese. The orchestra which has a busy performance schedule, is also engaged in recording all of Beethoven's piano concertos. To date, its recordings of concertos 1, 2, 4 and 5 (The Emperor) on the Satirino label have appeared to good reviews, while a third CD, featuring Concerto No 3 and the Triple is due to be released in the autumn.
Each of the recordings have been praised, particularly his playing of the second. "I think it is a fine work and instead of being looked at as an 'early' piece, in which Beethoven looks to Mozart and Haydn, it gives an important insight into what is to follow." He refers to looking to Beethoven's balance of emotion and power. There is also the vulnerability which is often lost behind the sheer musical force. Whereas many musicians will speak of feeling they have to find out as much as possible about an individual composer's life, he is wary of this "research" approach. "You look to the music, otherwise there is a danger of adding something into it which is not really there at all." Of the recordings he says, "we played them straight through, we wanted them to sound like performances, with all the life of performances, instead of recordings that have been put together in sections."
Douglas, now 47, became an international performer on winning the Tchaikovsky International Piano Competition in 1986, the only non-Russian to win outright since Van Cliburn won in 1958. Douglas recalls that he almost didn't go to Moscow. "I hadn't decided and then booked an apex flight at the last minute."
He is a down-to-earth character, who could not be accused of over-intellectualising his art. He looks about 10 years younger than he is.
In fact, he simply looks young, and far less ethereal than musicians tend to - there is neither the usual edginess nor the vague detachment. He may be exact, but he is relaxed about it. Douglas is articulate and precise and strikes one as a person who enjoys being involved with team projects. He has won many competitions and has already been awarded an OBE, yet is openly delighted that he is to receive an honorary doctorate from NUI Maynooth next month.
Through the festival he is giving something practical back to Irish music and he is pleased about that. The most exciting moments in the interview come when he speaks about Beethoven, not the man, the musician, and this is brilliantly reflected in the concerto recordings which are essential listening and do capture, as he says, that sense of live performance.
Deirdre, his wife, who is from Bangor, was a soprano."We got married in 1992 and I gave my last performance the following year," she says. They are based in Paris with their two sons and daughter, all of whom take music lessons because, as she says with a good-natured smile, "I make them". Although French is the language of their daily lives, they have worked hard at maintaining a sense of their Irishness and also draw on the cultural energy of Paris, "we go to galleries and museums, and as we live there we can concentrate on one room at a time" she says.
Douglas speaks about the need to be with the children when he is at home and is obviously more determined than his relaxed demeanour suggests. The son of a Belfast father and a Sligo mother, he has a sister and says the family was not musical. "I began playing by ear when I was four and at first played lots of instruments." Like most musicians, there were various important nudges along the way. Sometimes it is encouragement and inspiration; it can also be a dose of realism. For Douglas, the defining nudge came in the form of being told exactly how difficult it was to become a major artist. A woman arrived in Belfast to visit her sister. The visitor had been a pupil of the last pupil of Liszt and Douglas recalls her challenge to him. It made him determined to master the piano. His first teacher was Fred Houghton.
Douglas studied at the Belfast School of Music.
At 16 he had lessons with Felicitas LeWinter, a pupil of Emil von Sauer, who had been a student of Liszt. LeWinter provided the inspiration. A scholarship to the Royal College of Music in London led to Douglas studying with John Barstow. He then went on to study privately with Mario Curcio, herself a former student of Arthur Schnabel.
Arriving in Paris to study with the Russian pianist Yvegeny Malinin was an important breakthrough. Malinin has remained a vital influence. As an artist, Douglas plays with the passion and energy common to Russian musicians. He is an expressive player and he has much in common with the Romanian Radu Lupu who also plays in that Russian style. "I think you have to look to the music" says Douglas, "and when you see it on the page you then hear it and it is then about making it come alive. You look to the colour, colour is very important."
Outside, it is a murky summer's day, the traffic in Newry is crawling and the hotel lounge is quiet. Douglas is aware that his career became an international one before it had gone through the process of being an Irish one. His belief in Irish musicians is inspiring and explains his success as a conductor. "I think you have to listen and then discuss and sometimes just do what the others say. I love playing with other musicians as much as performing solo." The festival is more like Tanglewood - more American than European, he said. Camerata Ireland has a five-year residency at the Théâtre des Champs Élysees in Paris and the Paris concert is one of dates included in its International Concert series. Earlier this year Camerata opened the Smithsonian Festival in Washington DC and in June Camerata performed at the Naantali Festival in Finland. The orchestra will shortly take up residence at Castletown House in Co Kildare. Its Dublin International Series concert takes place at the National Concert Hall in November.
The festival, with its mix of master classes, concerts and recitals, has a wide appeal. Last year's Clandeboye Young Musician, flautist Eimear McGeown will perform with the 2004 winner, pianist Michael McHale tomorrow night. Monday night's Baroque concert features Bach, while Douglas's recital includes Schumann, Liszt and Schubert's Sonata in B Flat. All of the master class sessions are free to the public. The closing concert features the winning student, and a performance of Beethoven's Triple Concerto in which Douglas will be joined by Chee-Yun and Andreas Diaz..
How about the future of classical music? Is it being marginalised further? What are his fears? "None, we've played in all kinds of places; a church here, a concert hall there. The audiences listen. Classical music is alive and well." The energy at Clandeboye should prove exactly that.
The Clandeboye Festival, Bangor, Co Down, runs from tomorrow until Aug 25; 048 90394234