While it was works by Beethoven that were featured in a “special performance” by world renowned pianist Richard Goode on Friday night at this year’s Bach Virtuosi Festival at St. Luke’s Cathedral in Portland, the influence of Bach was still felt in many small ways.

Anticipating an all-Beethoven program might have caused more than a few fans of the Baroque to steel themselves for some forceful music. Though there were some bracing moments, Goode made it all quite engaging with his popular way of presenting even the thorniest of works with a sense of proportion and a palpable warmth that harkened back to the composer’s forebears.

The New York native, who just turned 80, centered the program, one he has been favoring lately, on Beethoven’s “Piano Sonata No. 30 in E Major, Op. 109 (1820).” One of the master’s later works, the sonata, particularly in Goode’s hands, provided a rich and fulfilling occasion for listening, creating the most complete musical experience of the night.

The expressiveness within the distinctive slow-fast-slow structure of the piece was visually dramatized as the white-haired pianist occasionally threw his head back and even hummed along a bit. For those not in the front rows, it was impossible to see his hands at work. But it was clear that there was a passionate but never flamboyant involvement by this artist known to charm audiences with his sensitive touch.

The transcendent lyricism of the third movement of the sonata was the high point of the concert. Though the storminess of Beethoven, certainly present at times Friday, can be entertaining, it is in the song-like moments, like those supplied in this piece’s conclusion, that his brilliance is confirmed. It was clear that Goode’s playing was attuned to that element.

The program opened with a performance of Beethoven’s “Six Bagatelles from Op. 119, nos. 6-11 (1822).” Alternately playful, humorous and dramatic, these pieces introduced the pianist’s expressive range. Delicate and lovely musical ideas filled the historic church hall’s every corner.

The evening finished with a stirring performance of the “33 Variations on a Waltz by Diabelli, Op 120 (1824).” Goode provided these brief variations, both showy and brilliant musical sketches, with the called-for extremes of tempo and dynamics. References to Bach were particularly clear in two complex, fugue-inspired variations.

Virtuosic turns reconfirmed the pianist’s gentle, elegant and imaginative approach over this longish stretch of music, known for the sense that Beethoven was having a bit of masterful fun with us all. The wit and wisdom of a unique artist/interpreter also prevailed as another, and yet another, bright moment emerged from Goode’s hands over the trek through the many variations.

Perhaps it was the Beethoven-supplied abundance of the roughly 90-minute program and/or the slight stuffiness in the cathedral on a muggy night that kept the large audience from demanding an encore (a bit of Goode’s take on Chopin would have been a treat). But this Bach Virtuosi Festival night was, nonetheless, one to remember.

Steve Feeney is a freelance writer who lives in Portland.

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