CU Presents' 80th-anniversary Artist Series continues with an intimate recital by acclaimed American pianist Richard Goode. Hailed by The Washington Post as 鈥渙ne of the finest pianists in the world,鈥� Goode will play a program of Beethoven, Debussy and more at Macky Auditorium on Friday, Oct. 28, at 7:30 p.m.
At 73 years old, Goode and his remarkably enduring performing career show no signs of slowing down. Over the decades, he鈥檚 played at every major concert hall in the world, including Carnegie Hall, Vienna鈥檚 Musikverein, Amsterdam鈥檚 Concertgebouw and London鈥檚 Royal Albert Hall.听
The pianist is known internationally for the unique, introspective touch he lends to music from the classical and romantic periods.
鈥淕oode has so thoroughly entered into the spirit of the compositions he performs that you鈥檇听swear the composer himself was at the keyboard,鈥� touts a review in Toronto's The Globe and Mail.
Goode鈥檚 path to piano virtuoso was unexpected. He grew up in the East Bronx with a piano tuner and amateur violinist father, who wanted Richard to take up his instrument someday. He sent his son to a neighborhood piano teacher, believing keyboard lessons would give the boy the solid musical grounding he鈥檇 need for the violin. Almost immediately, it was obvious听playing piano music was Goode's true calling.
In early adulthood, Goode built up an impressive r茅sum茅, co-founding the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and playing regularly alongside the greatest musicians of the day. But his shyness kept him out of the spotlight for decades, and it wasn鈥檛 until late adulthood he explored the possibility of a solo career at the behest of friends and colleagues, Leonard Bernstein among them. Battling a mild case of stage fright, Goode made his brilliant Carnegie Hall debut at age 47听and only a few years later won the Avery Fisher Prize and a Grammy Award.
Clarinetist Richard Stoltzman says it鈥檚 for precisely this reason that Goode is one of the best living pianists.
鈥淐an you imagine Richard if he had become a well-known soloist at 25?鈥� Stoltzman asks. 鈥淗e would have missed the depth and breadth of intensive meditation on music which only time has made possible. His concentration is what separates him from most musicians.鈥�
His characteristic self-effacement and reserve, adds a writer from Gramophone Magazine, also make it possible for him to delve deeply into music.
鈥淓very time we hear him, he impresses us as better than we remembered, surprising us, surpassing our expectations and communicating perceptions that stay in the mind,鈥� says Gramophone.
At his Oct. 28 recital in Macky, Goode will play听to his strengths鈥攎usic from the classical and romantic periods鈥攚ith piano sonatas by Mozart and Beethoven, preludes by Debussy and Brahms鈥� beloved Six Pieces for Piano. He鈥檒l also play four movements from Jan谩膷ek鈥檚 song cycle听On an Overgrown Path,听which was featured on the soundtrack to the film The Unbearable Lightness of Being.
But critics agree it鈥檚 always a great idea to hear Richard Goode in recital no matter what鈥檚 on the program.
鈥淚t is virtually impossible,鈥� says a New York Times critic, 鈥渢o walk away from one of Mr. Goode鈥檚 recitals without the sense of having gained some new insight, subtle or otherwise, into the works he played or about pianism itself.鈥�
