When Richard Goode’s first Mozart concerto recording for Nonesuch appeared in 1997 (coupling K456 and K486, 4/97), he made it clear in an interview in Gramophone that he was not planning to record a complete cycle but merely to pick and choose among the works he was especially devoted to. A second disc appeared 18 months later (coupling K271 and K503, 10/98), but then the series – which was rapturously received, not least in these pages – disappointingly seemed to dry up. Now comes a very welcome supplement, but I see that these two concertos – a nicely contrasted pair, like those on the previous discs – were recorded as long ago as April 1996.
In the face of such mastery as Goode’s I seriously wonder at that delay, and can only assume that someone was disconcerted by a slight quirk in the recording. The opening tutti of K595 (which comes first on the disc) makes a striking impact, not only thanks to the crisp, alert playing but to the full, bright, immediate recording. The piano enters with similarly full and immediate sound – very different from the more transparent piano sound on the Schiff disc – but then the orchestra seems to move further off. It is an inconsistency of balance that is disconcerting for no more than a moment or two, but might well make a hypercritical artist or producer have reservations.
What matters is the liveness of the experience that Goode and his partners provide. His approach is more purposeful, more direct than that of Schiff, who favours speeds consistently a shade broader than Goode’s. The natural weight and gravity of Goode’s playing, reflecting his equivalent mastery as a Beethovenian, emerges clearly in such moments as the hushed B minor opening or the development in the first movement of K595, an extraordinary modulation for a movement in B flat major (track 1, 6'25''), or in the opening solo of the Larghetto which follows. Not that Goode’s Mozart has anything remotely heavy about it in the wrong way. His lightness and wit in the finales of both concertos is a delight, with scale passages rippling infectiously, articulated with sparkling clarity.
In the finale of K459, Goode, like Schiff, opts for a very fast Allegro assai, drawing on his phenomenal agility. I myself prefer a slightly more relaxed tempo, such as Murray Perahia, for example, adopts, with more swagger and fun in it, but Goode’s playing is thrilling from first to last. In the central Allegretto of K459 I certainly prefer Goode’s more flowing tempo to that of either Schiff or Perahia, more clearly an Allegretto in 6/8 than an Andante. In the face of such commanding playing as this, I can only hope that this is not the last Mozart concerto disc that Goode will offer us, and that one day he might even be coaxed into tackling a complete cycle.'