The letter below is in the Irish Times of September 3rd 2008

(http://www.irishtimes.com/letters/index.html#1220372023195)

 What Ursula Hough-Gormley would not know was that , on the previous 4 days, Barry and Camerata Ireland had played 4 concerts in France (La Chaise Dieu festival in the Auvergne and Musique en Côte Basque in St Jean de Luz.) In 2 concerts at each , they played all five Beethoven  piano concertos.

So Barry and the orchestra had played 13 Beethoven piano concertos in 5 days !

 An Olympian of the keyboard

·         Madam, - If there were Olympics for music Barry Douglas would win a gold medal.

Last Sunday evening at Castletown he played not one, but three Beethoven piano concertos - Nos 2, 4 and 5 - while conducting Camerata Ireland from the piano. Is there another pianist in the world who could perform this task? I very much doubt it.

Ireland has produced yet another genius in the arts world. - Yours, etc,

URSULA HOUGH-GORMLEY,

Ormond Road,

Rathmines,

Dublin 6.

The top ‘high’ under Classical Music (penned by Michael Dervan) refers to Barry Douglas

CLASSICAL MUSIC (Michael Dervan) / HIGHS

Barry Douglas's performances Pianist Barry Douglas had a blazingly good year, with first-rate concerto appearances in Brahms (with the Ulster Orchestra under Kenneth Montgomery in January), in Bartók (with the RTÉ NSO under Giordano Bellincampi in May), and in Shostakovich (with his own Camerata Ireland in June).

My Way: Pianist Barry Douglas gives his career tips

'You must practise, and have integrity', Interview by Caitlin Davies, Published: 06 September 2007

Barry Douglas OBE has had an international career as a pianist since winning the gold medal at the Tchaikovsky piano competition in Moscow in 1986. He is the founder of Camerata Ireland, an all-Irish chamber orchestra. The third and final disc in their CD recordings of Beethoven's complete Piano Concertos will be released on 26 November.