March went out like a lamb when La Jolla Music Society continued the 2010 Frieman Family Piano Series with a luminous piano recital by Richard Goode on March 26 at Sherwood Auditorium. During a heady interview prior to the concert, Goode and composer/conductor Russell Steinberg discussed the repertoire, which comprised J.S. Bach’s Partita No. 4 in D Major, Franz Josef Haydn’s Piano Sonata in B Minor, Johannes Brahms’ Four Pieces for Piano, Opus 119, and Franz Schubert’s Piano Sonata in B-flat Major. Steinberg called it a monumental program, each piece a world. Goode said he originally planned to perform Chopin and then, because of the Music Society’s focus on Chopin this year (played by other pianists and chamber groups), he was asked to play works of other composers. Currently, Goode said, he’s become entranced with the Haydn, which he finds the darkest and most surly Haydn he’s encountered thus far. Adding to the challenge for all pianists is the fact that the score contains no dynamic markings. “I call this ‘the Bear,’” he said. “It’s grumpy and demonic.” The work may be challenging and out of sorts compared to one’s ideal of Haydn, but Goode made its performance sound like a piece of cake, even the devilish fourth movement. As for Brahms, Goode believes that the B Minor, which he played from memory, is the harbinger of the 20th century harmonically and tonally. He pointed out that Brahms always played tennis with a net, but his admirer, Arnold Schoenberg, did not. The Brahms is bittersweet in nature, alternately expansive, grandiose, passionate, poignant, poetic and melodic in the extreme. The Bach Partita was sublimely played, and perhaps the Schubert, which closed the program, was the most enjoyable to those familiar with his (and Brahms’) supreme vocal literature. Each of the four movements literally sings under Maestro Goode’s hands. Generously, Goode played an encore, Bach’s B-flat Sarabande. La Jolla Music Society continues this season’s Piano Series with Orion Weiss in a Sherwood Auditorium recital at 8 p.m. Friday, May 21. A great favorite of San Diego-area audiences, the young pianist will play a Chopin program rife with polonaises, mazurkas and preludes. At 7 p.m. Ben Roe concludes his three-part Chopin lecture series. This month, La Jolla Music Society presents the Schleswig-Holstein Symphony Orchestra at 8 p.m. Saturday, April 17 at Symphony Hall; Cedar Lake Ballet at 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday, April 24 at Birch North Park Theatre; and Eddie Palmieri at 8 p.m. Friday, April 30 at Birch North Park Theatre. For additional information and tickets, visit www.ljms.org or phone (858) 459-3728.