Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
03.01.2006
The eminently sophisticated young pianist Yu Kosuge, who like Akiko Suwanai is from Japan , collaborated with utmost sensitivity with the orchestra and whenever necessary guided the orchestra creating a wonderful and confident cooperation. Her solo encore, a stylistically appropriate piece entitled “Death and Nightingale” by Enrique Granados y Campina, was equally delicately “instrumentalized.”
Yu Kosuge / Real Orquesta Sinfónica de Sevilla / Christian Arming (Conductor)
Concerts on 03.02. and 03.03.2006 in Seville
El Mundo 03.04.06
[…]Japanese born YK, who is even younger than the conductor, is also a great talent. Her performance was phenomenal and technically outstanding. Most importantly however, it was filled with musicality and sensitivity and the incorporation of impulsive and lyrical accents with wit and humor imbued the piece with a very special atmosphere. […]
Cultural magazine El Correo de Andalucia 03.05.06
Young romantic
Elegance and delicacy earns enthusiastic applause
[…] The evening’s most outstanding event was undoubtedly the appearance of the young pianist YK. She interpreted Chopin’s famous Don Giovanni-based piece, the duo „La ci darem la mano“ with a combination of virtuosity and technical perfection on the one hand and with sensitive romanticism and great passion on the other. Such elegance and delicacy earned the audience’s enthusiastic applause, which in turn, was rewarded with an encore performance: a Nocturne, also by Chopin, that many recognized from Polanski’s film „The Pianist“ based on Wladyslaw Szpilman’s novel. […]
Süddeutsche Zeitung
12.03.2006
With less than half of the concert over, Japanese soloist Yu Kosuge’s performance in Grieg’s Piano Concerto in A Minor had already provided the audience with intense excitement. What can easily become a romantic cliché tearjerker, Kosuge handled with lithe, lyrical tone. Both flanking moderato movements surged with inner power and came to life through the tension generated between soloist and the orchestra lead by conductor Michael Helmrath. Kosuge’s lyricism in the adagio movement was outstanding as well and was rewarded with prolonged applause from the full auditorium.
24.04.2006
Märkische Allgemeine
24.04.2006
Through history with fantasy
An inspiring piano recital with young Yu Kosuge
Fantasy is essential to all art forms. Only in music, however, is there a whole compositional category devoted to it. Originally, Fantasy referred to an impromptu instrumental piece. By the 18th century, however, it had evolved into thematically independent instrumental compositions with deliberate, idiosyncratic variations.
On Friday evening in the Nikolaisaal Foyer, Japanese-born Yu Kosuge (1983) gave a stylistically confident performance of Fantasies from Bach to Manuel de Falla. Similar to Bach’s two-voiced inventions, a Fantasy in C Minor was followed by a true virtuouso piece in A Minor. With restrained pedal usage, Yu Kosuge came very close to a perfect Bach interpretation. With Mozart’s Fantasy in D Minor she once again exactly found the right tone and, with precise piano touch, brought a rendition of this work from 1782 to life.
Haydn’s Fantasy in C Major sounded unmistakably like the final movement of a Haydn piano concerto. To complete the three most famous classics, she followed with a very typical Beethoven Fantasy in the far-flung key of B Major. The piece begins with downward tumbling tonal cascades and only cautiously, interrupted by racing sequences, does the lyrical theme take on shape.
Towards the end, the Fantasy dissolves into a theme with variations. Yu Kosuge completely satisfied Beethoven’s demands and she demonstrated the same mastery in Schubert’s Grazer Fantasy. A feisty dance in the middle of the piece released the listener into the intermission. The second half turned romantic with Chopin’s great Fantasy in F Minor from 1840/41. Naturally, Rachmaninow could not be omitted from these Fantasy references. His piece, influenced by Schumann, and the Fugue in D Minor were reminiscent of the first part of Bach’s Well Tempered Piano. But the absolute hit was the final piece of the evening. The Fantasy Baética, dedicated to Rubinstein, united utmost virtuosity with the folkloric passion of de Fallas’ Spanish homeland. These Fantasies, in their unity with composition and interpretation were pure pleasure, highly coveted and served well by the young pianist.