Richard Goode (piano)

Joseph Haydn: Piano Sonata in D HXVI:24
Johannes Brahms: 7 Fantasias Op. 116
Gabriel Fauré: Nocturne No. 6 in D flat Op. 63

Claude Debussy: Préludes Book II

Wigmore Hall, 13 May 2007

This recital (two days after Tanya Gabrielian's, still reverberating in our ears) was a mixed experience, possibly influenced for us by chaotic London Transport that Sunday evening; nearly all the tube lines were disrupted, and we arrived late, missing the Haydn sonata which, from an account by a respected expert present, had been superb.

I thought Richard Goode seemed unsettled through the first half. The Brahms pieces were hectic and brusque in the fast ones, and not free from small blemishes - but the complex cross rhythms were well conveyed. The quieter, slower ones went far better.

I had expected the interval before the French repertoire, but it was as above. I was sorry there was but a single Nocturne to represent Fauré, and felt that he didn't quite find his very personal idiom.

Richard Goode seemed more relaxed after the interval (that often happens in recitals) and so were we! The 12 Debussy Préludes (Nos. XIII-XXIV) were immaculate and it was a pleasure to follow them from the score; so much detail of texture and harmony, scrupulously observed by Goode, passes by unnoticed otherwise.

Peter Grahame Woolf

Credit: Sasha Gusov