An absorbing afternoon with Richard Goode at the Guildhall today introduced by another very fine musician Martin Roscoe . It was nice to be reminded by Martin of our student days in Dartington together sharing many a glass of Scrumpy whilst playing in the masterclasses there of Stephen Kovacevich.

Martin with a very distinguished career and part of that wonderful trio of great pianists from the North of England completed by Peter Donahue and Katherine Stott .Displaying a prodigious memory for it was almost fifty years ago that Katherine and I taught for Miss Rowe in Ealing and Martin and I passed our wonderful summers immersed in music in Dartington

Introducing Richard Goode Martin revealed that his masterly recording of the Beethoven Sonatas was in fact the inspiration for his own which is nearing completion.

Together with other old friends and fellow students of Gordon Green :Tessa Uys and Peter Bithell who were present hoping to be not only inspired but informed by one of the great musicians of our time.

The opening Beethoven Sonata op 27 n.1 very musically played failed to ignite the masterclass in spite of some very interesting comments from Richard Goode . It was the Mozart Sonata in D K.311 that followed , played in a very professionally proficient manner by a master pianist but the moment that Richard Goode tried to explain that every note must have a meaning and began to demonstrate in his inimitable way the musical language of Mozart that spoke so eloquently and immediately a magic was created where the teacher ,student and public were totally involved.

And so it continued with the Fourth Ballade by Chopin. Richard Goode now totally inspired managed to share his passion, sense of balance ,colour and musical intelligence with the excellent young pianist who immediately inspired by the passionate technical and musical demonstrations turned a very fine performance into something really totally on a different plane.

An afternoon of sheer magic..