Crisp improvisation from a Beethoven virtuoso

Richard Goode Bath Festival

The American pianist Richard Goode has long been one of the most dependable of performers, guaranteed to bring fresh insights to his Beethoven in particular. That speciality rounded off his sold-out recital at Bath’s Assembly Rooms, which proved to be a highlight in the city’s newly configured multi-arts festival.

He opened with Bach’s Partita in E minor, BWV830. Framed by two big contrapuntal movements, it is the most challenging of all Bach’s keyboard suites, yet Goode seemed positively relaxed as he revelled in the dynamic shadings he drew from the piano. This was (in the best sense) old-school Bach, with plenty of pedal, and it gave the introductory Toccata improvisatory spirit. That carried over into the remaining six movements, not least in the fluid melody of the Corrente, where even in the fastest passages Goode seemed to be caressing the keyboard lightly. But he ensured that the Sarabande was the gravitational centre of the work.

His group of Chopin pieces functioned almost like a suite of dances, too, though the introduction was in a non-dance form: the late Nocturne in B major, Op. 62 No. 1. Goode is not one for over-dreamy Chopin and his forward pulse was welcome, especially since he had the light-worn virtuosity required for the reprise of the main theme, ornamented entirely in trills. If his three slightly scrambled Mazurkas wouldn’t win prizes for their Polishness, he made up for this with a magnificent account of the Polonaise-fantaisie, where he held all the impulses of this masterpiece in balance: in a performance that mixed delicacy with fiery heroism, the Polonaise rhythms were very present.

It was a masterstroke after this piece in hybrid form to switch back to Beethoven: his Sonata in

A, Op. 101, is a great experiment with form, and Goode captured its questing spirit. He brought crisp attack to the scherzo and romped through the fugal finale with musical imagination. Similar qualities came out in his performance of Beethoven’s Op. 110, the central panel of his final triptych of sonatas. It also ends fugally, and it brought a recital that had begun with Bach full circle.