Richard Goode

Beethoven: The Complete Piano Concertos

About this Album

Nonesuch Records released Grammy Award–winning pianist Richard Goode’s first recording of all five Beethoven piano concertos on May 5, 2009. The five works—spanning three discs—feature the Budapest Festival Orchestra led by the group’s founding conductor, Iván Fischer. Goode is one of very few American pianists to have recorded the complete Beethoven concertos, and the first to do so in nearly 20 years. The Financial Times gives the three-disc set five stars and declares it a "landmark recording of the Beethoven concertos."

This recording continues Goode’s long relationship with the works of Ludwig van Beethoven; in 1993 Nonesuch released a 10-disc set of his performances of the complete Beethoven sonatas, which was nominated for a Grammy and received much critical acclaim. The Guardian (UK) said, "It has been Richard Goode’s Beethoven performances that have nurtured his reputation. His accounts of the piano sonatas in concert and on disc (he was the first American-born pianist to record a complete cycle) are performances to which one can return without fear of finding them stale. They lack mannerisms and any sense of a performing ego trying to insinuate itself between the music and listener—the same selfless gift that his teacher Rudolf Serkin exemplified.”

Goode says, “It has been a great pleasure for me to perform and record the Beethoven concertos with Iván Fischer and his remarkable orchestra. Their superb brio, musical vitality, and total absence of routine have been an inspiration. I hope these performances will be faithful to the spirit of these great works and also reflect the joy of our collaboration.”

In regular performances with major orchestras, recitals in the world’s music capitals, and on acclaimed recordings, Richard Goode has won a devoted following among his fellow musicians, audiences, and critics, performing the works of Bach, Mozart, Brahms, Schubert, Schumann, Chopin, Debussy, Janáček, George Perle, and others. Goode’s 21 Nonesuch recordings range from solo and chamber works to lieder and concerti.

Iván Fischer is the founder and music director of the Budapest Festival Orchestra and principal conductor of the National Symphony Orchestra of Washington, DC. The ensemble is both a vital part of Budapest’s music life, usually performing to capacity audiences, and a frequent guest at the world’s most important concert halls.