THE pianist Richard Goode is undoubtedly one of the stars in this year’s Ryedale firmament. His aggressive treatment of sonatas by Haydn, Berg and Beethoven, however, and an all-Chopin second half, will not have been everyone’s cup of tea.

Mr Goode played as if in a venue five times the size. He rarely strayed into the softer side of forte. His accents were invariably strong; given any excuse to get louder he rapidly visited fortissimo. This best suited the Beethoven, Op 101 in A, where he admirably reflected the composer’s trademark ‘strops’.

Even here, though, he ignored the composer’s opening instruction, "with innermost feeling". Indeed, intimacy was what Mr Goode seemed to fear; he never drew us into his confidence. Two Haydn sonatas were more heavyweight than lightly rococo, and in the Berg, although the motifs were clearly drawn, he suppressed the music’s essential romanticism.

Much of the Chopin was hammered as if it were Liszt. Polish peasants stomped relentlessly through the mazurkas; the nocturnes – night pieces – would have wakened the dead. He found ample drama in Ballade III, but climaxed too soon, and the Barcarole rolled through decidedly rough waters.

The soprano Elin Manahan Thomas and lutenist Elizabeth Kenny were much calmer. Helmsley church is not ideally suited to hearing words, but the essential flavours of Elizabethan lute song emerged cleanly and the closing Carissimi cantata injected some vocal theatrics.