Review: Pianist Richard Goode at the Irvine Barclay Theatre

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After he became the first American-born pianist to record all the Beethoven sonatas, Richard Goode found himself typecast as a specialist. But in a recital at the Irvine Barclay Theatre on Wednesday, Goode left his Beethoven at home, concentrating instead on Bach, Schubert and a lot of Chopin.

Goode opened with Bach’s Prelude and Fugue in G minor from the second book of “The Well-Tempered Clavier” and followed it with the composer’s French Suite No. 5. Both were warm and supple accounts, in which he used a score. But it was hardly a sign of weakness. The four voices in the complex Fugue were as finely articulated as one could want, and there was plenty of rhythmic snap in the Suite.

The Bach functioned as warm-up for the formidable works to come, which Goode played from memory. After five Chopin Mazurkas, ending with an eloquent rendering of the symphonic Mazurka in C minor (Opus 56, No. 3), the pianist offered a lovely reading of the Nocturne in F-sharp major (Opus 15, No. 2).

Goode’s electrifying performance of the Scherzo No. 3 in C-sharp minor demonstrated his structural intelligence. His dramatic climb to the tumultuous coda was especially rousing. Given such a high point, Chopin’s moody Polonaise-fantasie in A-flat major (Opus 61) might have seemed anticlimactic. But the score, full of unexpected turns, is one of Chopin’s most adventurous and radical. Goode caught its improvisatory nature while keeping its subtle formal ingenuity in view.

After intermission, Goode gave a deeply satisfying account of Schubert’s towering Sonata in B-flat (D. 960), written a few weeks before the composer died in 1828. The pianist didn’t linger over the ominous undercurrents in the first movement (nor did he play the repeat), preferring to view the work as a hymn to life.

By conveying Schubert’s lyrical and harmonic brilliance, Goode suggested a direct kinship to Chopin. In fact, Chopin knew his music well. The song cycle “Winterreise” gave him solace when he split from George Sand, and one of his students is on record as having been urged by him to study Schubert’s piano duets.

Goode returned to Bach for his encore: the Sarabande from Partita No. 1. Like his recital, it was beautifully judged and executed.

-- Rick Schultz

Goode. Credit: Sascha Gusov.