In addition to many other responsibilities, Richard Goode is co-artistic director of the Marlboro Music Festival in Vermont. It is fitting that he holds this position as a successor to Rudolf Serkin, for both are renowned for their intellectual pianism. Their styles are very different, however: While Serkin was most adept at illuminating the original intent of the composer, Mr. Goode seems more determined to emphasize the limpid vocabulary of a given work, even to the detriment of its emotional content. His traversal of five of the Beethoven piano sonatas on Friday evening at Carnegie Hall demonstrated that, with his impeccable technique, he should be described as a pianist’s pianist.

Whether he is a listener’s pianist is a matter of personal taste. Although usually close to note-perfect, this careful technician spends an inordinate amount of time with the trees rather than the forest. In the building of the Allegro molto e con brio section of the first movement in the “Pathetique” sonata, for example, Mr. Goode demonstrated solid cross-hand skills but played each iteration of the right hand in the bass at exactly the same volume. The result was a tautology rather than a drama. There was no catharsis, no peripeteia, no denouement, only a steady but ultimately uninteresting sameness.

Of course, some melodies are so great that a faithful resurrection of them is all that is required. The main theme of the Adagio cantabile of the same sonata was highly satisfying, with Beethoven supplying all the necessary pity and power while Mr. Goode reproduced the notes on the printed page with solid fealty. There is nothing wrong with this type of loyalty, but an entire evening is a bit much.

Next came a rarity: the Sonata No. 6 in F major. Somehow many recitalists overlook this particular effort unless they are in it for the long haul of comprehensiveness. It may be avoided because it centers on that most oxymoronic concept of German humor. Sounding often like a sketch for the third movement of the “Pastorale” symphony, it requires an artist of bold colorations and strokes to portray the oafish transfigured to the saintly. And Richard Goode, for all of his bags full of precision – some of which were leaking on this night – is not that artist. The humor was there, but it was forced and somewhat deadly.

Just in passing, I noticed during the No. 24 in F-sharp major that the patrons of Carnegie Hall had had to wait 39 years for the first performance of the work there. (It was apparently worth the wait, as the soloist was Sergei Rachmaninoff.) My perusal of the program booklet during this reading indicates that by this point in the evening I was adversely affected by Mr. Goode’s facile but pedantic approach.

Finally, “Les Adieux.” This is a piece chock-full of emotion – three pieces, in fact, since each movement expresses the complexities of feelings surrounding the departure and eventual return of a close personal friend and benefactor. But one would need to dive into those program notes again to know this, since this pianist would have none of it. Once again the individual notes were there in their proper order, but the music was mysteriously missing. Here is where he differs from Serkin, who would have taken into consideration how Beethoven would have played the piece.

The usually metaphysical No. 32 rounded out the program. There is much to praise in Mr. Goode’s pristine technique, and those familiar with the 32 might profit from a refresher course in solid musicianship from this skilled craftsman. But if I were going to introduce someone to the pleasures of the Beethoven sonatas, I would not wish to bring them to hear Richard Goode.

***

This recital was the second appearance of Mr. Goode as part of his Perspectives series at Carnegie. There are yet six more concerts to come, wherein he will assume several guises. As an accompanist, he will work with a quartet of singers in a mostly Haydn program at Zankel Hall on December 7, and with soprano Dawn Upshaw at the same venue in February in a rare performance of Schonberg’s “Book of the Hanging Gardens.” As a lecturer, he will present his own thoughts on the Beethoven Sonata Op. 110 on December 10 at the Weill Recital Hall. As a chamber musician, Mr. Goode will join members of the Brentano String Quartet in the Mozart K. 493 Piano Quartet at Zankel Hall on December 13, and return there on January 14 for another rarity, Leos Janacek’s “The Diary of One Who Vanished.” Additionally, Mr. Goode will perform Bartok’s Third Concerto with the Budapest Festival Orchestra in the Isaac Stern Auditorium on January 20.

Carnegie Hall, 881 Seventh Avenue, at 57th Street, 212-247-7800.