Well known as a specialist in early keyboard instruments, Douglas Hollick studied organ with Peter Hurford whilst organ scholar at Hull University, and subsequently with Marie-Claire Alain in Paris and both organ and harpsichord with Gustav Leonhardt in Amsterdam. He has played widely both here and abroad, including the 1991 Prague Early Music Festival, and in Melbourne, Sydney, and the 1992 Fremantle Bach Festival in Australia. Visits to the Czech Republic continued for some years, with teaching and concerts in Prague, Brno and Ostrava, a member of the jury of the 1996 Organ Competition in Opava, and two Czech Radio recordings, the latest in 2007. In 1999 he played in the Dolní Lukavice Haydn Festival in Bohemia. In visits to Germany he has played organ recitals in Stuttgart, and on the Silbermann organs in Dresden and Pfaffroda, and in 2004 and 2005 on the restored 17th century organ of St Johannis, Hamburg-Neuengamme. Elsewhere in Europe have been recitals in Roskilde Cathedral and Helsingør in Denmark, and Helsingborg in Sweden, where he played in the Buxtehude Festival of 2007. 2003 and 2011 saw return visits to Sydney in Australia, and the Glebe Festival, as well as recitals in Western Australia. A particularly memorable occasion was a performance of Bach's Goldberg Variations in the 2008 St David's Festival in Wales to a large and appreciative audience in the Cathedral. Other concert venues have included Westminster Abbey, St Paul's Cathedral and St John's Smith Square in London, Winchester, Ely, Carlisle and Chester Cathedrals, Southwell Minster, and in Trinity, Clare, Wolfson, Girton, Newnham, Churchill and St Catharine's Colleges Cambridge, The Queen's College Oxford, together with Hull, Southampton, Nottingham, Warwick and Edinburgh Universities. Festival performances include the Edinburgh, King's Lynn, Finchcocks and Gravity Fields Festivals. He teaches organ, harpsichord and performance practice in Clare and Trinity Colleges Cambridge.
Repertoire
A wide repertoire has included major works like the Goldberg Variations and Clavierübung III of Bach, and also works by lesser known composers such as Kuhnau, Benda, Moyreau and Séjan. Programmes often have a particular theme (such as Fantasy, inebriation and madness), and mixed harpsichord and organ programmes can be particularly interesting. The musicality, authority and virtuosity of Douglas Hollick's playing ensure that his concerts are always stimulating and enjoyable. For harpsichord recitals and chamber music in the UK, he uses his own 1989 copy of the 1711 Pierre Donzelague instrument. Educational work is also undertaken with this instrument - Douglas Hollick made early keyboard instruments for 15 years up to 1990 in parallel with his playing, so he is uniquely qualified in this respect. Masterclasses can be arranged to link with a particular concert programme, giving students a deeper insight into the music by being able to listen to performances as well as play themselves. Clavichord is now becoming another regular concert instrument with the acquisition of both the 1909 Dolmetsch Chickering clavichord after Hoffmann 1784, and the 1974 Adlam Burnett copy of the 1763 Hass clavichord in the Russell Collection, Edinburgh. Whilst a more intimate venue is ideal, these instruments have quite a big voice and project well. A recording of Haydn sonatas from the 1780s is available on the Dolmetsch Chickering clavichord, which is a perfect match for this music, and a new recording on the Adlam Burnett clavichord just released September 2022.
Private lessons
Private consultation lessons can be arranged either in Cambridge or at home, where apart from the harpsichord, there is also a Klop two manual and pedal chamber organ, a copy of an early 17th century German triple fretted clavichord, a 1909 Dolmetsch Chickering clavichord after Hoffmann 1784, an Adlam Burnett clavichord, copy of Hass 1763, a grand pianoforte of 1809 by Broadwood, and a Paris Erard grand of 1841. Illustrated lectures and lecture recitals based around harpsichord, or the Adlam clavichord are available, and make for a different and fascinating variation on the usual concert programmes. Douglas Hollick taught weekend residential courses for many years at Madingley Hall for Cambridge University, so has a wealth of experience in this area. Visitors to the instrument collection welcome by appointment.
Research and more
A year 2000 Churchill Fellowship enabled Douglas to pursue further research into the keyboard instruments from the period of Buxtehude and the young Bach, and to assess the performance implications of the acoustics in churches where Buxtehude worked as organist. His project took him to North Germany and Denmark for a month, visiting such places as Hamburg, Lübeck, Lüneburg, Copenhagen, Roskilde, Helsingør and Stralsund, visiting museum collections and historic organs. The results of the trip have been seen in Douglas' playing, teaching and writing, and in the 2002 recording called Buxtehude, master and pupil made in Buxtehude's church in Helsingør. 2007 saw the release of another CD dedicated to this period and area of repertoire - a tercentenary tribute to Buxtehude called Music of the Baroque avant-garde which presents free works for harpsichord and organ and is accompanied by a substantial essay which can be found on the Riverrun website. This and Douglas' other Riverrun recordings and articles for various magazines formed part of the Birmingham Conservatoire submission to the 2007 Research Assessment Exercise, and continuing research in this area resulted in a trip to Malmö in Sweden in 2008 to see the important mid-17th century organ in the museum there. The 2017 recording Bach: under the influence continues this strand of research and recording focused on the organ music of North Germany, this time based around research by Dutch organist Piet Kee into Number and Symbolism in ostinato organ works of the 17th and 18th century.