Richard Goode has been universally acclaimed as a master interpreter of the classical piano repertoire for more than fifty years. “One of the greatest American pianists of his or any generation, Goode performs with deceptive ease,” wrote the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “He plays with complete mastery of his instrument and the score.” He is also a true citizen of classical music, having run the legendary Marlboro Music School and Festival for fifteen years. He and Jeremy Denk, who performed at Baldwin Auditorium  on December 10, are among the few classical pianists ever to be signed to Nonesuch Records.

More than two decades after he became the first American pianist to record the complete Beethoven sonatas, Goode brings three of these sublime works to Durham. After opening the program with the Bach Partita in E Minor, he plays three of Beethoven’s sonatas from the end of the composer’s epic cycle of 32 works. Beginning with the poetic and heartfelt Sonata No. 28 in A Major, the first of the composer’s late-period masterpieces, Goode follows this with the bold and complex No. 30, and ends the evening with the profound No. 31.