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Odd couple
Richard Goode/Jonathan Biss piano recital (2nd review)
Not since Eugene Ormandy and Riccardo Muti appeared together in a Public TV special about the Philadelphia Orchestra, circa 1980, has a musical program brought together two such seemingly incompatible performers— incompatible, that is, in every respect except the one that matters: their craft.
Jonathan Biss is a tall, slender, hyperactive 29-year-old pianist with close-cropped dark hair who seems incapable of sitting still at the keyboard. His fellow pianist Richard Goode is 66 and a head shorter, with rumpled white hair and restrained body language at the keyboard— except for his face and mouth, which appear to conduct a vigorous ongoing conversation with his music as he plays. Put them together and you would have an unlikely meeting of Jerry Lewis and the British icon John Bull— or at least you would have before Goode shed most of his John Bull belly in a major recent diet.
That virtuoso pianists look, act and play differently is no surprise. The remarkable thing about last week's Goode/Biss duo piano concert was the seamless manner in which this odd couple played together, almost as if they were one person.
Through works by Debussy, Schumann, Beethoven and Stravinsky they sat at pianos facing each other; for the finale— Schubert's Fantasy in F Minor, Goode and Biss played four hands side-by-side on a single keyboard. The diversity of the program offered something for every taste in the sold-out Perelman Theater audience: Beethoven's Grosse Fuge, Op. 133, put me to sleep; Stravinsky's Agon disturbed that sleep; and the tender Schubert finale was immensely worth waiting for. But the most heartening aspect of the evening was not so much the music itself as the reassuring demonstration that the great classical canon could pass so smoothly from one generation to another.♦
To read another review by Peter Burwasser, click here.
Jonathan Biss is a tall, slender, hyperactive 29-year-old pianist with close-cropped dark hair who seems incapable of sitting still at the keyboard. His fellow pianist Richard Goode is 66 and a head shorter, with rumpled white hair and restrained body language at the keyboard— except for his face and mouth, which appear to conduct a vigorous ongoing conversation with his music as he plays. Put them together and you would have an unlikely meeting of Jerry Lewis and the British icon John Bull— or at least you would have before Goode shed most of his John Bull belly in a major recent diet.
That virtuoso pianists look, act and play differently is no surprise. The remarkable thing about last week's Goode/Biss duo piano concert was the seamless manner in which this odd couple played together, almost as if they were one person.
Through works by Debussy, Schumann, Beethoven and Stravinsky they sat at pianos facing each other; for the finale— Schubert's Fantasy in F Minor, Goode and Biss played four hands side-by-side on a single keyboard. The diversity of the program offered something for every taste in the sold-out Perelman Theater audience: Beethoven's Grosse Fuge, Op. 133, put me to sleep; Stravinsky's Agon disturbed that sleep; and the tender Schubert finale was immensely worth waiting for. But the most heartening aspect of the evening was not so much the music itself as the reassuring demonstration that the great classical canon could pass so smoothly from one generation to another.♦
To read another review by Peter Burwasser, click here.
What, When, Where
Richard Goode and Jonathan Biss: Piano recital. Works by Debussy, Schumann, Beethoven, Stravinsky and Schubert. Presented by Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, February 4, 2010 at Perelman Theater, Kimmel Center, Broad and Spruce St. (215) 569-8080 or pcmsconcerts.org.
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