Music / “Australian Chopin Festival Prelude”, Kotaro Nagano, piano. At the Wesley Music Centre, August 27. Reviewed by LEN POWER.

KOTARO Nagano has performed in cities across Japan as well as in Europe, Canada and Australia.

He was the first prize winner and the people’s choice prize winner of the second Australian International Chopin Piano Competition in 2014 and has returned to Canberra many times since to give concerts for the Friends of Chopin Australia.

This was his first recital in Canberra with the Friends since covid.

This program gave an insight into the major styles that Chopin composed in for the piano. It also demonstrated Chopin’s ability to compose small, intimate miniatures through to major, long-form works.

The program opened with these shorter works – mazurkas, etudes, preludes and waltzes. Some were well-known works by Chopin like the “Fantasie Impromptu” and the “Prelude in E minor”, and the longer “Scherzo in E major” completed this first part of the program. Nagano impressed with his calm manner and the depth of emotion he achieved in the works. He seemed, through his playing, to find another dimension in works I thought I knew well.

The second part of the program commenced with Chopin’s superb “Nocturne in E flat major”. Again, Nagano gave a thoughtfully restrained edge to this work that made his interpretation truly memorable. It was followed by the “Berceuse in D flat major”, a sensitive lullaby. Nagano gave it an appealing softness in his playing.

The final work of the program was Chopin’s “Sonata in B minor”. This challenging, long work with its changing emotions was given a thrilling performance by Nagano.

As if that was not enough, he calmly gave two encores to the delight of the audience who gave him a well-deserved standing ovation.