That Barry Douglas has troubled, and triumphed, over Max Reger’s 40-minute Piano Concerto is a humbling corrective to the brainless ‘dumbing down’ that is currently plaguing so many areas of the record industry. Not that the concerto is an especially tough nut to crack for the listener. Quite the contrary, in fact: anyone who loves Brahms’s concertos or revels in Elgar’s aching chromaticism will delight in Reger’s mighty opening Allegro moderato, while the entrancing Largo con gran espressione – with its loving allusions to two Protestant chorales – gives way to a light-hearted Allegretto con spirito. It is no wonder that Arnold Schoenberg, himself a committed Brahmsian, considered Reger a genius.
Rudolf Serkin was a strong advocate of the Piano Concerto (Sony should prepare a new transfer of his CBS recording – their last, not currently available, was dreadful), and of Douglas’s two principal CD rivals, the excellent Gerhard Oppitz offers the more compelling alternative. BIS’s Love Derwinger (under Leif Segerstam) is individual and imaginative, but tends to linger excessively among the first movement’s quieter moments. Douglas offers both grandeur and vitality, and Janowski’s handling of the orchestral score is the best we have on disc. The opening crescendo thunders in on a timpani roll and dialogue thereafter is conceived very much on equal terms. This is no virtuoso concerto a la Liszt or Tchaikovsky, but a symphony shared between collaborating forces – and that is precisely how Douglas and Janowski perform it.
As to couplings, Koch offer none while BIS give us a fine account of Reger’s orchestral Suite im alten Stil. Strauss’s 20-minute Burleske is about as different from Reger’s Piano Concerto as you could imagine, although it too has its roots in the piano music of Brahms. But while Reger strides forth with his head among the clouds, Strauss is the dandy marksman, all gleaming teeth and dashing glances. Douglas copes well with the Burleske’s quick-witted contrasts and lyrical outbursts, although, in terms of sheer style, he is a notch or two below Argerich under Abbado and Janis under Reiner. Again, Janowski offers sterling support (even if his orchestra play with more bluster than finesse) but personally I would have preferred something a little tighter, leaner and more balletic. Still, the coupling is instructive, the sound is again impressive – albeit a little over-resonant – and the overall standard of playing hearteningly high. Recommended.'