Bewitching concert a fitting tribute to Akron pianist

Plain Dealer - February 21, 2007

by Donald Rosenberg

No pianist was more beloved in the Akron area than the late Margaret Baxtresser, who gave concerts around the world, taught at Kent State University and shared illuminating observations about music and life with anyone smart enough to listen. A lot of people did.

How fitting, then, that the Tuesday Musical Concert Series chose Richard Goode to inaugurate its Margaret Baxtresser Annual Piano Concert on Tuesday at E.J. Thomas Hall. Goode is an artist of striking eloquence and discernment, as was Baxtresser.

In a world where many musicians draw attention to themselves, Goode appears content to disappear into the music in the role of distinctive messenger for the composer. His Akron recital of works by Bach, Mozart, Brahms, Debussy and Chopin was a remarkable reminder of his ability to inhabit each expressive space as if it were the most important issue of the moment."

Goode barely touched the sustaining pedal in Bach's Partita No. 5 in G major, allowing lines to flow in the clearest perspective. The dance rhythms fairly leapt from the keyboard, the grandest flourishes were miracles of contrapuntal vitality and transparency. Anyone who believes this music can only be played on period instruments would be transformed by Gode's approach.

The entirely different aura of Mozart's Rondo in A minor, K. 511, found the pianist alert to the score's tragic and hopeful nuance. Goode used subtle dynamic gradations to convey the music's changing personality, and he emphasized harmonic implications.

Brahms goes other directions in his Seven Fantasies, Op. 116, in terms of drama and poetry. The capriccios are impassioned and conflicted, the intermezzos wistfully lyrical. Goode's cogent shaping intensified the music's extremes. Alternately fiery and tender, he made the emotions in Brahms' miniatures sound vibrantly alive.

Goode devoted the second half of the program to Debussy's Preludes, Book 11, whose 12 movements explore a galaxy of coloristic possibility. Hazy harmonies give way to whimsical gestures and movements of exquisite song without words. Pictures of nature rub shoulders with portraits of obscure and renowned figures (General Lavine, Pickwick) and scenes of ethereal enchantment.

Like a keyboard chameleon, Goode switched sonic gears to suit the specific atmosphere. The intimate passages were as bewitching as the episodes of fire and dancing apparition. Debussy must be smiling.

The audience certainly did, especially when Goode offered an encore of Chopin's Nocturne in E flat major, Op. 55, that was a dream of lyrical purpose and restraint.