Richard Goode

Richard Goode established himself as one of the era's foremost recitalists only after committing to solo and concerto work at a relatively advanced stage. Earlier he had built his standing chiefly through chamber settings, appearing regularly at the Spoleto Festival and serving as a founding member of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center.

His musical lineage stands out. Born on June 1, 1943, in the East Bronx, he came from a household his father, a piano tuner and amateur violinist, described as "semi-musical." The elder Goode intended his son for the violin yet enrolled him with a local piano instructor to instill fundamental musicianship. Once the boy's gifts proved keyboard-centered, his father arranged lessons with Elvira Szigeti, niece of the renowned Hungarian violinist Joseph Szigeti.

Elvira Szigeti's circle introduced the ten-year-old Goode to arts patron Rosalie Leventritt, who secured an audition before Rudolf Serkin. Impressed, Serkin directed him to Claude Frank. Goode subsequently worked with Nadia Reisenberg, Karl Ulrich Schnabel, and Serkin himself during the latter's tenure at Philadelphia's Curtis Institute.

Goode's core repertoire centers on the middle-European canon. Like Artur Schnabel—whose approach Karl Ulrich Schnabel and others have repeatedly likened to his own—he has championed the long-overlooked piano sonatas of Franz Schubert. His early-1980s traversal of the complete Beethoven piano sonatas, issued by Book-of-the-Month Records and Elektra/Nonesuch, brought his penetrating style to broader audiences. Although he has not avoided contemporary scores, his modernist preferences remain measured; George Perle's compositions figure prominently among them.

An abiding attention to music's inner substance and structural equilibrium has shaped an introspective manner. That inward focus, coupled with habitual stage apprehension, long deterred Goode from pursuing solo recitals. Only after urging from trusted colleagues, including Leonard Bernstein, did he relinquish the comparative safety of chamber music and launch a solo career at age 47. His widely praised Carnegie Hall debut featured, characteristically, Schumann's Davidsbündlertänze.

An inquiring mind has also drawn Goode toward literature—Moby Dick and Finnegan's Wake stand among his favorites—and extensive study of visual art, pursuits he finds mutually enriching with his music-making. He resides in New York City with his wife, violinist Marcia Goode.