Friends Of Music To Present

World Renowned Pianist Richard Goode

Richard Goode first performed in Newtown in 1982, thrilling the audience with brilliantly executed music, and was asked back again for an all Beethoven recital in 1984. His performances reflected, even then, exceptional insight, sensitivity and intelligence.  He has continued to captivate audiences throughout the United States and Europe since then.

Newtown Friends of Music is therefore delighted to present the return of Mr Goode in concert on Sunday, September 16, at 3 pm, at Edmond Town Hall. This will be the first of six performances in NFoM’s 30th anniversary season program.

Over the past 25 years Richard Goode has been hailed for music making of tremendous emotional power, depth and expressiveness, and has been acknowledged worldwide as one of today’s leading interpreters of classical and Romantic music. In regular performances with major orchestras, recitals in the world’s music capitals, and acclaimed Nonesuch recordings, he has won a large and devoted following.

In an extensive profile in The New Yorker, David Blum wrote “What one remembers most from Goode’s playing is not its beauty – exceptional as it is – but his way of coming to grips with the composer’s central thought, so that a work tends to make sense beyond one’s previous perception of it… The spontaneous formulating process of the creator [becomes] tangible in the concert hall.”

Over the last few seasons, Richard Goode has appeared with many of the world’s greatest orchestras, including Boston Symphony Orchestra under Levine, Haitink, and Ozawa; the Chicago Symphony under Eschenbach, the Cleveland Orchestra under Zinman, the San Francisco Symphony under Blomstedt, the New York Philharmonic with Sir Colin Davis, and the Toronto Symphony under Peter Oundjian.

He has also appeared with the Orchestre de Paris under David Robertson, and toured on a number of occasions with Ian Fischer and his Budapest Festival Orchestra, as well as making his Musikverein debut with the Vienna Symphony. He has been heard throughout Germany in sold-out concerts with the Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields under Sir Neville Marriner.

The September 16 program in Newtown will offer music from a variety of genres, beginning with Prelude and Fugue in G minor, Four Sinfonias and Prelude and Fugue in B Major by Bach.

Mr  Goode will continue with Sonata in D Major by Haydn and Sonata No. 14 in C-sharp minor, Op. 27 (‘Sonata quasi una fantasia’) by Beethoven.

After a brief intermission, the program will offer three preludes by Debussy (La cathedrale engloutie, Ondine and General Lavine), and close with Impromptu in F-sharp Major, Op. 36, Three Mazurkas (G Major, Op. 50 No. 1, C Major, Op. 24, No. 2 and C-sharp minor, Op. 50, No. 3), Nocturne in B Major, Op. 62., No. 1 and Polonaise in F-sharp minor, Op. 44 by Chopin.

All tickets for this performance will be $18. Students K through 12 are admitted free of charge when accompanied by a ticket-holding adult. The box office will open one our before the start of the concert.

Advance reservations are also available, and strongly recommended due to the popularity of this artist. Call 426-6470.

Parking is free behind Edmond Town Hall and the facility is handicap accessible with all seating providing excellent viewing and acoustics.  Following the performance there will be an informal reception to meet the artist in the town hall lobby.

A free brochure with details about the full season is available by writing to Newtown Friends of Music, PO Box 295, Newtown CT  06470-0295, or visiting NewtownFriendsOfMusic.org.