Goode Continues Southbank Residency, "Poised to Perfection"

Richard Goode held the latest event of his season-long artist residency as Associate Artist at London's Southbank Centre with a concert this week at the Centre's Queen Elizabeth Hall. The Guardian gives the performance four stars, with reviewer Erica Jeal calling the Chopin-focused program, also featuring works by Bach, Mozart, and Debussy, "thoughtfully and reverently put together."

"Each time Goode returned to Chopin," writes Jeal, "it was like a homecoming." As she explains:

He found insight in the relative simplicity of the mazurkas, and even virtuoso works such as the Op. 54 Scherzo and the Op. 44 Polonaise didn't sound like tricksy showpieces ... [T]he trills near the end of the Nocturne in B, Op. 62 No 1, were poised to perfection, as were the sugar-spun runs in the Op. 36 Impromptu in F sharp, with Goode, deep in communion with the instrument, emitting a gruff purr over the top.

Jeal concludes: "This was mellow, mature playing, its emotion strongly felt but only sufficiently signalled. It takes a classy pianist to achieve that."

To read the review, visit music.guardian.co.uk/live.

The Guardian also features a profile of Goode, in which writer Andrew Clements examines the pianist's life story, from his earliest childhood piano lessons to the reluctant launch of a solo career through his breakthrough Beethoven piano sonata cycle recordings on Nonesuch to today when, Goode reports, "Basically, I play the music I love best."

As Clements sees it,

much of the work Goode does play demands just as much technical prowess as the flashier pieces he avoids. It's a matter of temperament and taste, and of knowing where his musical strengths lie. Right now, Goode is using those strengths to outstanding effect.

To read the article, visit music.guardian.co.uk/classical.

Up next in the Southbank residency, Goode will conduct a lecture-recital at Queen Elizabeth Hall tonight and a master class tomorrow afternoon in the Purcell Room. The final event in the series will be held on May 31, a concert of four-hand piano works with Richard Goode. For program and ticket information, visit southbankcentre.co.uk.