Press Quotes
“Goode’s playing is thrilling from first to last.”
Gramophone
“Richard Goode proved once again that he is the supreme master of musical rhetoric, a genius at distilling and expressing the absolute essence of the musical thought behind any composition.”
“Goode is so spontaneous at the piano that he gives the impression that he is surprised by the music he is playing, surprised and delighted, even when it is a work he has performed hundreds of times.”
Toronto Globe and Mail
“Goode showed himself, as usual, to be an interpreter of exceptional insight, sensitivity, and intelligence.”
The Denver Post
“Mr. Goode gave his account a distinctly Mozartean accent, with a light touch, a tone that alternated between crystalline and gently singing, as needed, and with currents of courtly elegance and playful subversion intertwined.”
“Mr. Goode has thought long and hard and cares deeply about what he plays, and he has much to say that is provocative and moving....Perhaps his most important gift is a clarity and soundness of expression, which compels a listener to re-think familiar pieces in new ways.”
“It is hard to think of any other artist on record who has been all at once technically, temperamentally and intellectually as suited to the challenges of these sonatas as Mr. Goode is. These beautifully engineered recordings [of the Complete Beethoven Sonatas] may well become a landmark.”
New York Times
“Richard Goode is one of the finest pianists in the world. Few can match his unfailingly beautiful tone, effortless technical command, interpretive insight and total emotional commitment to the music he plays.”
“One thing Goode exemplifies is a return to the values of Romanticism, including freedom of expression, deep emotional involvement in the music and a technique so masterful, it does not need to call attention to itself.”
Washington Post
“One would have to search far and wide for a more substantial or satisfying recital than the one Richard Goode presented on Sunday as part of Lincoln Center's 'Great Performers' Series.”
New York Post
“The American Richard Goode, the pianists’ pianist, a superb artist who attacks the classical repertoire with the full force of his heart and mind.”
Times (London)
“Goode's immersion in the music is total, to the point of singing lustily with it, and there were moments when it seemed as if he felt the instrument were inadequate to reach the emotive peaks he was seeking.”
The Philadelphia Inquirer
“One of the most exciting and satisfying piano recitals in recent memory.”
“Richard Goode is among the most persuasive Beethoven interpreters of our time. But his brilliant Berkeley recital Monday night was a reminder that he is also that rarer and perhaps more marvelous creature: a great Schubert Performer.”
“This superb release, featuring luminous, gripping performances of the five late Beethoven Sonatas, reconfirms Goode's stature as a consistently intelligent and probing artist.”
“…exquisitely clear and discriminating keyboard touch… Everything stands revealed in the light of his interpretation.”
San Francisco Chronicle
“This was playing that wrapped the listener in its spell for two hours, playing that made no concessions to fad or fancy, playing that approached the status of revelation.”
“There is no other performer around these days who can make Bach’s music ring out on the piano with such lean, sinewy strength, such blinding translucence or tender grace.”
San Francisco Examiner
“This was not just effective playing, this was wise playing - the kind that makes the listener, whatever his previous notions about the music, want to whisper, ‘Yes, this is the way it should go.”
The Toronto Star
“The buzz from America is right. There is no Beethoven pianist today quite like Richard Goode.”
“There is no flamboyance or opulence about his playing, just a remarkable attention to detail, to the energy of every rhythm, the expressive potential of every texture and harmonic shift, and above all to the way in which the music creates a unique world of sensibility.”
The Arts Guardian (London)
“...the music flowed through him with such mellow insights, deep emotional involvement and self-effacing pianism that you felt as though you were confronting the composers’ thought processes directly rather than through an interpreter.”
Chicago Tribune
“...Goode is among the best Mozart players of his generation, one who has the depth to understand this hardest of all music and who puts his considerable gifts purely to its service.”
“This performance was truly cherishable--he played with a lucent, buoyant tone, impeccable taste, imagination, style, humor and originality.” [Beethoven's Concerto No. 4 with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Kurt Sanderling conducting.]
Boston Globe
“The pianist produced a total performance that was a joy in the ear, a nourishment for the mind and an uplift for the spirit. For this listener, it was a high point of the musical year.”
The Los Angeles Times
“Spectacular virtuosity of a special degree, paired with great musicality....Hopefully Richard Goode will come back soon!”
Wiener Zeitung (Austria)
“Goode is the pianist you go to when you genuinely want to listen and experience. There’s nothing tired, second-hand, superficial, or merely pretty in what he does.”
The Philadelphia Inquirer Magazine
“Goode combined ethereal lightness of touch with a powerfully argued musical line; his unhurried pace was superbly controlled; his articulation of details did not detract from a vision of the whole; and insights informed each phrase.” [Mozart Concerto K. 595 with Baltimore Symphony, David Zinman conducting]
“Goode is as persuasive an exponent of the Mozart-Beethoven-Schubert repertory as any pianist alive.”
Baltimore Sun
“Richard Goode, one of America's most singularly gifted pianists, tapped the inner beauty of both concertos (Mozart and Bartok) last night at Meyerhoff Hall.” Baltimore Sun
“Richard Goode may be the best pianist in America. Goode gave what was simply the best Beethoven performance heard in this city since Rudolf Serkin's Emperor Concerto of perhaps a decade ago. He gave the same kind of assured, Olympian and deeply involving performance Serkin had given. It was one in which the drama was sweeping but unforced and in which lyrical moments were gorgeously formed. I've never heard the slow movement of this concerto sound so beautiful.” [Beethoven's Concerto No. 4 with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, Eduardo Mata conducting.]
Dallas Times Herald
“This pianist can do at the piano anything he wants--and make it sound easy. Yet even at his most powerful he is never harsh. It will be some time before we again have the privilege to hear such direct and unaffected piano playing. Come back soon, Richard Goode.”
The Montreal Gazette
“More refreshing still, happily, is the actual disc at hand, on which Goode and the Orpheus perform the Concertos No. 18, in B-flat Major (k. 456), and No. 20, in D Minor (K. 466), with such genuineness of spirit and such unbounded joy that I’m at a loss for words to praise them.”
Stereo Review (Mozart: Piano Concertos Nos. 18 and 20)
“These Chopin realizations, in fact, strike me as even more urgently involved, more personally communicative, and certainly more vividly colored than anything I’ve heard from Goode before - and that’s saying quite a bit.”
Stereo Review (Chopin Release 1998)
“Goode and the recording process do not disappoint....This is unquestionably a landmark recording, not to be missed” [Schubert Sonata in D Minor, Landler]
Fanfare
“When mind and fingers are equally nimble, as they are in the playing of Richard Goode, the result is consummate music making, a joyous and captivating display of luminous intelligence.”
“His performances were so carefully considered and brilliantly executed that the music sounded fresh and spontaneous, its myriad textures and colors making direct appeal to the senses.”
The Oregonian
“. . .every moment . . . was a revelation.” The National Post
“A titanic performance.”
The Courier-Journal
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