Customer Reviews

Richard Goode Plays Brahms

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This CD isn't new, but I heard it for the first time just recently (Nov. 2001). It is utterly gorgeous. As we know, Richard Goode shines in the standard German Romantic and Classic repertoire, and this recording makes his affinity for the dignified-yet-passionate idiom of Brahms quite apparent. Especially intriguing is what Goode says in his notes about the E-minor intermezzo (op.116 no.5; track 13), which turns out to be one of the most haunting and harmonically interesting little things you can imagine from the pen of the later Brahms.

The other pieces on this disk aren't as compositionally startling but they're all quite lovely (some very agitated and forceful, but always within the usual Brahmsian boundaries of taste), played with great control and feeling, and naturalness above all. Goode has an unusual slant on the E-flat Rhapsody in the last track -- it's good (no pun intended) to hear a fresh take on an old standard like that. The CD is fairly full of his Gould-like humming along, but it's really not a problem. It only further evinces Goode's deep sympathy for this affecting, smaller-scale, largely underappreciated music.

Up until now, Wilhelm Kempff has been my favorite pianist in these marvellous works, but Goode is just as fine (in a very different way) and much better recorded. The recorded sound itself is excellent, but I was somewhat distracted by the extraneous noise, which the previous reviewer believes is Goode's humming, but sounds to me more like some mechanical sound (I've had the same problem with some of Goode's Beethoven recordings). But what a perfect Brahms sound he produces! Just listen to the opening of Op. 76/1 to hear what I mean. Goode is one of the very few pianists I've heard who can make the Op 119/4 sound grand without pomposity. Essentially, though, I'd say Goode is a lyrical player, coaxing the most telling nuances from the piano (op 119/1 is an excellent example). The lighter pieces (op 76/2, op119/3) are elegantly done. Goode puts his superlative technique entirely at the service of Brahms, and no lover of great piano playing should be without this fine disc. My only regret is that Goode hasn't (yet) recorded the op 117 and 118 sets.

I agree with another reviewer that Goode's approach to Brahms is lyrical--opp 116 #4 is one of the best tracks on the album. But other lyrical tracks show ragged details that call for a retake (for example, m. 55 of op 119 #3--why the accent on the 2nd beat?
It just sounds like RG lost it mentally for a moment. That happens in a live performance, but this is a recording.

And what about the more forceful pieces? Goode's self-written program notes (and for writing his own, I give the guy high marks) note that in Op. 76 #5 "A short coda is yet more crabbed, compressing the previous [rhythmic] complexities [. . .] Clara Schumann confessed herself at a loss with this piece." Goode can get into bed with Clara. Brahms's coda, a brilliant conclusion to the battle of the meters, shows how they come together in triumph, but there's no triumph in Goode's crabbed version.

And Op 119 #4, Brahms's best rhapsodie and the piece you play for dinner guests when you want them to go home (because it is so loud), is kind of slow and surprisingly muffled. I can't tell if it's the recording engineers or Goode, but it's not a very satisfying conclusion to Brahms's best keyboard writing.

I give it a high 3, almost a 4, but Brahms was a meticulous composer and this is not a meticulous performance.