On Thursday, 28 February 2008, the Japanese pianist, Kotaro Fukuma, gave a piano recital in the Odeion.

Kotaro provided the audience with a rendition that showed complete technical and interpretative mastery, which Elretha Britz described as a “flawless performance” in the Volksblad.

The performance began with Haydn’s Piano Sonata, Op. 9. It was followed by Schumann’s “Carnival” and three compositions by Kotaro’s fellow countryman, Toru Takemitsu, who passed away in 1996. After a tour though an imaginative landscape of sound in Takemitsu’s compositions, he rounded off his programme with Scriabin’s Piano Sonata No. 3.

The audience not having had enough, were then treated to a Liszt transcription of Schumann’s Lied, Widmung, as an encore.

The concert was well supported by the people of Bloemfontein who went home more than satisfied. In fact, there were standing ovations at the end of almost every work.