Richard Goode

Mozart: Piano Concertos Nos. 23 & 24

About this Album

Long-time musical collaborators Richard Goode and the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra pair one of Mozart’s most exuberant piano concertos, No. 23, with one of his most dramatic and tragic compositions for piano and orchestra, No. 24, in a recording The New Yorker describes as “intense performances of profound pieces.” It is the third release in the Goode/Orpheus series of Mozart concerto recordings for Nonesuch.

Written in tandem with The Marriage of Figaro during the winter of 1785–86 in Vienna, the composer originally intended the pieces recorded here to be virtuoso showpieces for himself. On this recording Richard Goode pays homage to Mozart’s genius, with the interplay between the pianist and the Orpheus players recalling performance practice in Mozart’s own time.

The Goode/Orpheus Mozart project has received widespread international recognition since the release of their first Grammy-nominated CD in 1997. That disc received Gramophone magazine’s Record of the Month award in April 1997 and was voted Stereo Review’s Record of the Year. The New York Times described Goode’s performance of Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 20 in D Minor, K. 466, on the inaugural disc, as “temperamental and dramatic … a darkly Beethovenian interpretation of one of Mozart’s most Beethovenian works.” Goode’s second recording in this series, which includes Mozart concertos Nos. 25 and 9, was described by David Mermelstein of the New York Times as "fresh, energetic Mozart certain to tickle the fancy of anyone who delights in inspired music-making. Mr. Goode is an esteemed artist, technically adept and intellectually rigorous …On this disk, his efforts are a constant joy.”