Kotaro Oshio Passenger (2020)

For many years now, I have been playing piano transcriptions in my recitals, and the programme on this disc was originally devised for my concert at the Valletta Baroque Music Festival in Malta in January 2020. I have special affinity with many of the pieces, but here I will share just a couple. One is my own transcription of the aria “Erbarme Dich, mein Gott”, which I first performed at a Preface concert entitled “Homage to Toru Takemitsu”. As I explained on that occasion, Takemitsu loved this aria; he would play it every time he set to work on a new composition, and also by chance he heard this piece on the radio the day before he died. The other piece that is close to my heart is the Passacaglia and Fugue in Eugen d’Albert’s transcription, which I played when I collaborated with Mathieu Ganio, danseur étoile at the Paris Opera Ballet. Until then, Mathieu was mostly cast as a prince, but in this project, he took on a new challenge to perform a one-man play. I still remember vividly how he appeared on stage with this music, naked down to the waist, like the image of Christ on the way towards his crucifixion.

This is a Kotaro Fukuma’s new album “Souvenirs de Chopin”, to be released on September 13, 2024. This is a special product celebrating the 20th anniversary of Kotaro Fukuma’s debut in Japan, and not only that, this is also his 20th album. Since winning the First Prize and the Chopin Prize at the 15th Cleveland International Piano Competition in 2003, he has continued to work as an international pianist, performing in a total of 37 countries, based in Japan and Europe. This album is the culmination of Fukuma’s 20-year career and includes many tracks that are “Souvenirs” of his own life.

Kotaro Fukuma began piano lessons at the age of five and received numerous awards at prestigious international competitions. At the age of twenty he won the First Prize and the Chopin Prize at the Cleveland International Piano Competition. His debut production on ARS PRODUKTION is dedicated to this composer.