Pianist and composer Stewart Goodyear: Beethoven marathons, Tchaikovsky transcriptions, plus his own works

“When he was just 3 or 4, [Canadian pianist Stewart] Goodyear was enthralled by Led Zeppelin, the Beatles, Ravi Shankar, Joe Cocker and Carlos Santana,” writes Anthony Tommasini in Friday’s (5/21) New York Times. “But it was two boxes containing the complete symphonies of Beethoven and Tchaikovsky that made him want to become a musician…. He will play three [Beethoven] sonatas on Wednesday at the 92nd Street Y…. Goodyear has been a soloist with major orchestras around the world, and has won high praise from critics. Yet he has not attained that extra level of awareness and appreciation from the public…. His 2015 recording … of his … arrangement of Tchaikovsky’s ‘The Nutcracker’ [included] the entire 82-minute ballet score…. [In] his Beethoven sonata marathon in 2012 … in Toronto … Goodyear played [all 32 sonatas] in a single day…. He has done the marathon six more times…. As a composer, he has two premieres approaching: a piano quintet he wrote for himself and the Penderecki String Quartet and a triple concerto for the chamber orchestra ProMusica in Columbus, Ohio…. He is especially eager to perform Liszt’s … piano transcription of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony in November at Koerner Hall in Toronto.”