Chopin: Autour des Ballades Kotaro Fukuma

• Frédéric Chopin (1810–1849): Autour des Ballades
• 1 Andante spianato et Grande Polonaise brillante in E-flat major, Op.22 14:05
• 2 Fantaisie-Impromptu in C-sharp minor, Op.66 (1835 version) 04:56
• 3 Ballade No.1 in G minor, Op.23 09:36
• 4 Waltz No.3 in A minor, Op.34-2 06:04
• 5 Ballade No.2 in F major, Op.38 07:47
• 6 Ballade No.3 in A-flat major, Op.47 07:23
• 7 Nocturne No.13 in C minor, Op.48-1 06:05
• 8 Ballade No.4 in F minor, Op.52 11:28
• 9 Nocturne No.4 in F major, Op.15-1 04:07
• 10 Etude No.3 in E major, Op.10-3 04:26
• Total Runtime 01:15:57

Info for Chopin: Autour des Ballades

After his trip to Spain (Iberia by Isaac Albéniz) and his Russian promenades in the path of the Pictures from an Exhibition (by Modest Moussorgsky), Kotaro Fukuma is travelling with Frédéric Chopin in the heart of European music. In France, Chopin's soul sings with a poetry which goes beyond all borders (Grande Polonaise Brillante). His Four Ballades, composed in Vienna and Paris, express alternating sentiments, an 'Odyssey of Chopin's soul', as Liszt expressed it (N°1): sadness, anxiety, dreaminess, serenity, elation, always enrobed in beautiul and original harmonic modulations. The universality of the sentiments expressed by the power of his art gives Chopin's music an unsurpassable force. It is a challenge to his interpreters to reveal this. Kotaro Fukuma has taken up this challenge in his album 'Autour des Ballades'.

Kotaro Fukuma, piano

Kotaro Fukuma
born in Tokyo, Kotaro Fukuma started learning piano at the age of 5 and has obtained many high awards in such international competitions as Tel Aviv (Rubinstein), Santander (Paloma O’Shea), Helsinki (Maj Lind), Rio de Janeiro (BNDES) and Salt Lake City (Gina Bachauer). In 2003, at the age of 20, Kotaro won both First Prize and the Chopin Prize at the 15th Cleveland International Piano Competition. Since then his concert career has developed on five continents.

He has performed in major concert venues, including Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center in New York, Wigmore Hall in London, Philharmonie and Konzerthaus in Berlin, Gewandhaus in Leipzig, Salle Olivier Messiaen in Paris, Victoria Hall in Geneva, Auditorio Nacional in Madrid, Teatro Municipal in Santiago de Chile, Suntory Hall and Opera City in Tokyo. His performances with orchestras include the Cleveland Orchestra, Finnish Radio Symphony, Israel Philharmonic, Dresden Philharmonic, Île de France National Orchestra and New Japan Philharmonic. Passionate about contemporary music, Kotaro has performed world and national premieres of works by Toru Takemitsu, Mutsuo Shishido, Renaud Gagneux, Thierry Escaich, Thierry Huillet, Peter Klatzow and Francesco Milita.

He studied music at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris with Bruno Rigutto and Marie-Françoise Bucquet, then at the Univeristät der Künste Berlin with Klaus Hellwig and at the International Piano Academy Lake Como in Italy. He has also studied with several great masters of the piano, including Leon Fleisher, Mitsuko Uchida, Richard Goode, Alicia de Larrocha, Maria João Pires, Leslie Howard and Aldo Ciccolini.

Kotaro has released six CDs for the labels Naxos (Schumann, Takemitsu), Accustika (Liszt, Toppan Live Recital), Harmony (Albéniz, reedited by Éditions Hortus) and Denon (Debussy), and has received critical praise in such music magazines as Gramophone, Diapason, American Music Records, Monde de la Musique, Bayern 4 Klassik and Classic Today.

Booklet for Chopin: Autour des Ballades