Search - Johannes Brahms, Richard Goode :: Richard Goode Plays Brahms

Utterly selfless playing by Goode. Not to be missed!

Richard Steiger | Murray, KY USA | 12/06/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"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."

Goode shines with lesser-known Brahms

L. Richard Duffy | Cambridge MA USA | 11/19/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"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."