If Barry Douglas wanted, he could fill his already busy schedule by teaming up with leading orchestras in grand halls all over the world. Between those performances and the demands of being artistic director of Camerata Ireland, the chamber music ensemble he founded in 1999, the acclaimed Irish-born pianist would be kept more than busy.

But like most concert pianists, Douglas relishes the intimacy of solo recitals. That's a major reason he's coming back to perform Sunday with the Philip Lorenz Memorial Keyboard Concerts series at Fresno State. Plus, he just likes the series and people involved.

"I'm very excited to be coming back to Fresno," says the busy Douglas, speaking this week from -- where else? -- an airport.

He will tackle two monumental works of the Romantic period: Schubert's Wanderer Fantasy and Brahms' Sonata in F Minor. Beethoven's Sonata in G major serves as kind of a short, bright appetizer.

Douglas performed in the series in 2010 and 1997, and executive director Andreas Werz relishes the chance to present Douglas again.

"I truly believe that he is now at the absolute height of his artistry," Werz says. "I can't think of any other artist at the moment who plays all these major works of the Romantic time with such authority and mastery."

Fresno audiences will hear Douglas play just a few weeks before the release of his latest CD, "Brahms: Works for Solo Piano, Volume 2." The pianist is recording all of Brahms' solo works for the Chandos label.

He's also on tap to record the complete Schubert piano works.

Right now the complete Brahms series could total between eight and 10 CDs, depending on whether some of Brahms' incidental piano music is included, Douglas says. The first CD was released about a year ago, but Douglas plans an accelerated schedule for the rest of the series after the initial offering received such a strong response.

One thing that makes the series special -- apart from the playing of Douglas, who won the Gold Medal at the 1986 Tchaikovsky International Piano Competition -- is the order in which he's presenting the works. Rather than merely plowing through the pieces in their entire published sets, which is the usual process in the recording industry, Douglas is grouping the pieces in an eclectic based on mood and style.

In effect, it's a curated experience for the listener that mixes up different times in Brahms' life, an idea conceived by Douglas to add a freshness to the composer's work.

He adds with a laugh that after the whole series is complete, all his careful planning of the order of the pieces likely won't be appreciated by people who shuffle tracks on digital listening devices. But for those who want it, his artistic statement is there to hear.

"It's an exciting project for me because I've played Brahms for a very long time," he says.

Concert preview