The New York Times-20080129-Chopin- With Progenitors and Progeny- -Review-

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Chopin, With Progenitors and Progeny; [Review]

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Very little in the recital the pianist Richard Goode presented in the Rose Theater on Sunday evening strayed far from the core repertory for which he is best known. What made the concert compelling was his thoughtful sequencing. In a brief program note Mr. Goode called the concert a kind of homage to Chopin. In practice, this meant surrounding Chopin's works with music by German forebears in the first half, and French successors in the second.

Those juxtapositions, perfectly logical on paper, were also illuminating in practice. Encounter Chopin's Nocturne in C minor (Op. 48, No. 1) after Bach's Prelude and Fugue in C from the second book of The Well-Tempered Clavier, and your appreciation for Chopin's architectural logic grows. Move on to Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata, and you sense that Chopin's style is a successful fusion of Bach's clear logic with Beethoven's intensely personal manner of narrative.

That Mr. Goode was able to underscore formal lucidity without stinting on poetry was no small feat. Five sinfonias by Bach and four mazurkas by Chopin sang and danced in equal measure; Mr. Goode gave each its own character. His account of the well-worn Beethoven work was all the more powerful for the clarity and restraint he brought to the first two movements. By contrast, the finale seemed breathless.

Mr. Goode opened the second half of his program with scintillating accounts of two Debussy etudes, ticklish studies inspired by Chopin's mix of technical refinement with artistic fancy in his own etudes. Likewise, Faure's subtle, dreamlike Nocturne No. 6 in D flat was surely influenced by Chopin's works in that form.

Chopin's Nocturne in C sharp minor (Op. 27, No. 1) was just as formally sound as the nocturne encountered earlier in the program. But given the piece's placement between the Debussy and Faure works, what stood out most were the unsettling harmonic shifts of the first section and the surging passion of the second.

Mr. Goode provided a rousing conclusion with Chopin's stormy, obsessive Polonaise in F sharp minor. The evening's theme continued with two encores: Chopin's Nocturne in E flat (Op. 55, No. 2) and the Sarabande from Bach's Partita No. 1.

[Illustration]PHOTO: Richard Goode playing a Chopin-themed program on Sunday. (PHOTOGRAPH BY MICHAEL NAGLE FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES)