It is a pity that Richard Goode begins the C minor Sonata with such an excessively clipped statement of the main theme. A pity, because it is so unrepresentative. He is a volatile player who occasionally shoots himself in the foot with rhythmic mannerisms (for example, over-held rests from 0'20'' in the finale of the C minor Sonata, over-held long notes from 2'28'' and again from 6'28'' in the slow movement of the D major). But he stands out from the crowd by virtue of his self-belief, countless subtleties of weighting, and an element of echt-Beethoven fantasy in his temperament. The finale of the D major Sonata concludes the disc with some of the most impressively sustained Beethoven interpretation of recent years.
Chalking up faults is always easier than doing justice to a musician's inner interpretative vision. There are solecisms in Richter's playing too (a live 1980 recital, now part of a two-disc set from Pyramid), as I hope I made plain, but they count for little beside his overall grasp. I look at my detailed reservations about Richard Goode and they seem petty; but when I rehear the passages in question I remember why they loom so large. When he kicks the pedal (as at the beginning of the C minor finale) it seems like a substitute for the kind of drama that should be coming from the music; similarly, when he clips the crotchets in the same theme it sounds like too obvious a reaction to the thematic character; and when he fails to note Beethoven's withholding of a crescendo from the main theme of the F major Sonata first movement (from 3'59'' and again from 4'20'') it goes with a failure to find the touch of unreality of mystery implied at this point in the structure.
These remain exceptional moments, and Goode's Op. 10 Sonatas are far superior to John O'Conor's more urbane accounts on Telarc. I would cite the development section of the F major Sonata and the entire first and third movements of the D major as models of insightful Beethoven playing. When the most difficult things are so marvellously done it is all the more frustrating that some of the easy ones are spoiled. Recording quality is fine, but the piano itself is tonally less than pleasing above the treble stave.'