Keiko Kamada debuts in Vienna with a luminous recital at the Gesellschaft für Musiktheater

Keiko Kamada has recently made her Vienna recital debut with a deeply personal and emotionally resonant performance at the Gesellschaft für Musiktheater. Playing to an almost full house, she presented a program that travelled through light and shadow, offering a musical experience she described as “kind, heartwarming, gentle and enveloping”—a balm for the stresses of modern life.

The recital opened with J. S. Bach’s Prelude and Fugue No. 7 in E-flat Major, BWV 876 from The Well-Tempered Clavier II, and concluded with an encore of Ave Maria by Bach/Gounod—framing the evening with the music of a composer Kamada reveres as the source of inspiration for all who followed.

The program continued with Beethoven’s introspective Sonata No. 30 in E Major, Op. 109, followed by Chopin’s dazzling Études Op. 10, Nos. 4 and 5, Schumann’s final composition Ghost Variations (WoO 24), and Liszt’s poetic Vallée d’Obermann. The recital traced a subtle thread through works inspired by the spirit and structure of Bach, while also exploring virtuosic joy and lyrical introspection.

Kamada’s performance was not only a celebration of pianistic mastery, but also a spiritual offering, conveying what she describes as the “invisible, mystical power of light and the love of harmony.” A remarkable debut in a city steeped in musical history.