Richard Goode, pre-eminent American pianist, to perform at Bates

Richard Goode, acclaimed as “one of the titans of the piano repertoire” by the San Francisco Classical Voice, returns to Bates for a performance at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Dec. 5, in the Olin Arts Center Concert Hall, 75 Russell St.

Admission is $25, available at batestickets.com. For more information, contact olinarts@bates.edu or 207-786-6135.

In his decades-long career, Goode has established a reputation for mastery of Classical and Romantic literature. He has made more than two dozen recordings throughout his career, from solo and chamber works to lieder and concertos.

“America has produced few pianists at Goode’s level of achievement,” writes the Chicago Tribune. “Very few of his generation can touch him in his core repertory.”

Because Dec. 5 is the 213th anniversary of the death of Mozart, Goode will start his Bates performance with that composer’s Sonata in B minor (K. 540). Next up is one of Beethoven’s least-performed sonatas, No. 24 in F-sharp major (“A Thérèse”) (Op. 78), followed by Brahms’ Eight Piano Pieces (Op. 76).

The second part of the program consists of Debussy’s six-movement suite Children’s Corner and Schumann’s Humoreske (Op. 20).

Goode last performed at Bates in September 2011.

In 1993, Goode became the first American pianist to release a recording of the complete Beethoven sonata cycle, which was released to widespread acclaim and earned him a Grammy nomination. Goode and clarinetist Richard Stoltzman won a Grammy in 1983 for their recording of Brahms clarinet sonatas. Goode’s discography totals nearly 30 titles.

Goode focused on chamber music early in his career and was a founding member of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. Later he moved toward solo and concerto performances. He made his solo debut at Carnegie Hall at the age of 47.

“It’s virtually impossible to walk away from one of Richard Goode’s recitals without the sense of having gained some new insight, subtle or otherwise, into the works he played or about the pianism itself,” wrote The New York Times.

Reviewing a 2012 Goode concert for the San Francisco Classical Voice, Georgia Rowe wrote that “the great American pianist gave the kind of splendidly refreshing performance that washes the dust from even the most oft-performed works.”

Goode has appeared with the world’s greatest orchestras, including the Boston Symphony Orchestra; the Chicago Symphony; the Cleveland Orchestra; the San Francisco Symphony; the New York Philharmonic; the Toronto Symphony; and the Vienna Symphony. He has performed with the Orchestre de Paris and has been heard throughout Germany in sold-out concerts with the Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields under Sir Neville Marriner.