Richard Goode has been hailed for music-making of tremendous emotional power, depth and expressiveness, and has been acknowledged worldwide as one of today’s leading interpreters of Classical and Romantic music. In regular performances with the major orchestras, recitals in the world’s music capitals, and through his extensive and acclaimed Nonesuch recordings, he has won a large and devoted following.
Gramophone magazine recently captured the essence of what makes Richard Goode such an original and compelling artist: '‘Every 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.”
Richard Goode opens his 2016-2017 season in New York as soloist with Louis Langrée and the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra in a program to be filmed as part of a documentary celebrating the 50th Anniversary of one of the country's most popular summer musical events. On the other side of the ocean, the American-born pianist will be featured in numerous European festivals including the prestigious Edinburgh Festival, in addition to appearances in London, Budapest, Madrid, Stockholm, Antwerp and Helsinki. A highlight will be concerts in Hungary and on tour in the U.S. with one of the world's most admired orchestras and his recording partner, the Budapest Festival Orchestra and Ivan Fischer. Their recording of the five Beethoven Piano Concertos has won worldwide acclaim; Goode will perform Concertos No. 2 and No. 4 on the tour which includes performances in February 2017 at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center, Lincoln Center, and for the Chicago Symphony, the University Musical Society in Ann Arbor and Celebrity Series of Boston. Mr. Goode will also be heard in recital at Carnegie Hall and at major university and concert series throughout North America.
In the 2015-2016 season Richard Goode appeared as soloist with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and Jeffrey Kahane, followed by appearances with the Orchestre de Paris and Herbert Blomstedt, the Cincinnati Symphony and David Zinman, and the Orchestre National de Lyon and Ton Koopman, among others. A compelling recitalist, Mr. Goode was featured in the Great Performers Series at Lincoln Center in New York, at the Royal Festival Hall in London, in the Chicago Symphony series, and at major venues in the U.S. and Europe including those in Budapest, Cleveland, Denver, Genova, Glasgow, Kansas City, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Vancouver and Washington, DC. He also returned to the Gilmore Festival in recital a and in a duo concert with the rising young soprano Sarah Shafer and also was featured in a gala concert celebrating the 30th Anniversary of the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, the country"s largest presenter of recital and chamber music concerts.
Among the highlights of recent seasons have been the recitals in which, for the first time in his career, Mr. Goode performed the last three Beethoven Sonatas in one program, drawing capacity audiences and raves in such cities as New York, London and Berlin. The New York Times, in reviewing his Carnegie Hall performance, hailed his interpretations as “majestic, profound readings......Mr. Goode’s playing throughout was organic and inspired, the noble, introspective themes unfolding with a simplicity that rendered them all the more moving.” He was also heard as soloist with Andris Nelson's in his first season as Music Director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, also at Carnegie Hall, where Goode was featured in two. Hammer music concerts with young artists from the Marlboro Music Festival, in a master class on Debussy and in a Main Hall recital . Recent seasons have also included performances with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra led by Fabio Luisi at Carnegie Hall; with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Gustavo Dudamel; with Orpheus on tour and at Carnegie Hall.
An exclusive Nonesuch recording artist, Goode has made more than two dozen recordings over the years, ranging from solo and chamber works to lieder and concertos. His latest recording of the five Beethoven concertos with the Budapest Festival Orchestra and Iván Fischer was released in 2009 to exceptional critical acclaim, described as “a landmark recording” by the Financial Times and nominated for a Grammy award. His 10-CD set of the complete Beethoven sonatas cycle, the first-ever by an American-born pianist, was nominated for a Grammy and has been ranked among the most distinguished recordings of this repertoire. Other recording highlights include a series of Bach Partitas, a duo recording with Dawn Upshaw, and Mozart piano concertos with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra.
A native of New York, Richard Goode studied with Elvira Szigeti and Claude Frank, with Nadia Reisenberg at the Mannes College of Music, and with Rudolf Serkin at the Curtis Institute. His numerous prizes over the years include the Young Concert Artists Award, First Prize in the Clara Haskil Competition, the Avery Fisher Prize, and a Grammy award for his recording of the Brahms Sonatas with clarinetist Richard Stoltzman. His first public performances of the complete cycle of Beethoven sonatas at Kansas City’s Folly Theater and New York’s 92Y in 1987-88 brought him to international attention being hailed by the New York Times as “among the season’s most important and memorable events.” It was later performed with great success at London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall in 1994 and 1995.
Mr. Goode served, together with Mitsuko Uchida, as co-Artistic Director of the Marlboro Music School and Festival in Marlboro, Vermont from 1999 through 2013. Participating initially at the age of 14, at what the New Yorker magazine recently described as "the classical world's most coveted retreat," he has made a notable contribution to this unique community over the 28 summers he has spent there. He is married to the violinist Marcia Weinfeld, and, when the Goodes are not on tour, they and their collection of some 5,000 volumes live in New York City.
