In these days of economic uncertainty and aborted retirements, Richard Goode is certainly not the only American to be starting a new job at age 82. But it’s a good bet that few are having such a good time at the new gig or bringing such pleasure to others.
The position Goode has accepted is as the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra’s newest artistic partner, his first day on the job being Friday. Or at least the public-facing part of the job, as he spent the late morning and early afternoon performing the first of three weekend concerts at the Ordway Concert Hall. And how fortunate we are that this masterful American pianist — widely acknowledged as among the great interpreters of the music of Mozart and Beethoven — will be making regular visits to our area for concerts of concertos and chamber music.
Two Mozart piano concertos are on the program this weekend, and Friday’s first taste of this recurring collaboration was a delight. Goode’s delicate touch, fleet fingers and puckish playfulness at the piano would be impressive for a player of any age, but the years have only enhanced his interpretive wisdom. Add to that the fact that the SPCO is a simply excellent Mozart orchestra, and you have an ideal match that local classical music lovers should seize the opportunity to experience.
Just as Goode is using Mozart’s 12th and 14th piano concertos to launch his SPCO tenure, so did the composer write them as a means of introduction to Viennese audiences when he was new to town. Unsurprisingly, the concertos are both crowd-pleasers, as sweet and effervescent as a sparkling Riesling.
Goode established his approach on the 12th, embracing subtlety over showiness, his phrasing clean, direct and tasteful. He made the slow movement mesmerizing, its cadenza spare and simple, before using the pedals to lend a singing quality to the finale’s rapid-fire staccatos, eventually bringing the flavors of a Bach fugue to the final cadenza.
For the Concerto No. 14 that concluded the concert, it was fun to watch the pianist employ subtle gestures to offer direction to the orchestra, such as a left hand wafting in the air, jabbing to suggest a strong attack or flipping a page of his score emphatically. On the concerto’s opening movement, his fingers floated across the keys as delicately as a butterfly in flight, although its cadenza demonstrated that he can still summon up thunder, as well.
The slow movement was propelled by exquisitely executed trills before giving way to the day’s most full-voiced collaboration between pianist and orchestra. Then Goode returned to a playful spirit for a dancing finale, inspiring an enthusiastic standing ovation for an artist who sounds as if he still has a lot of outstanding playing to offer us.
If that weren’t enough, this weekend’s concerts also feature a passionately played chamber work by Benjamin Britten (his Phantasy for oboe and strings), with principal oboist Cassie Pilgrim’s urgently lovely tones soaring skyward above an aggressively bowing trio of strings. And bridging the two Mozart concertos are four movements from Leoš Janáček’s “Idyll” for Strings, reminding listeners that the SPCO is as adept at muscular folk-flavored fare as it is with elegantly precise Mozart.
