POETRY, PASSION & PROKOFIEV / ZLATA CHOCHIEVA Piano Recital / Review

 

POETRY, PASSION & PROKOFIEV

ZLATA CHOCHIEVA Piano Recital

Victoria Concert Hall

Saturday (16 August 2025)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 18 August 2025 with the title "Pianist Zlata Chochieva plumbs Prokofiev's Romantic heart".

On an evening with multiple concerts involving both national orchestras and other musical groups, Russian pianist Zlata Chochieva, presented by Altenburg Arts, did well to attract a modest but discerning audience with a programme of varied but substantial works. Schumann and Prokofiev, like chalk and cheese, did not strike one as immediately appealing on paper but reality proved otherwise.

The recital opened with the Sonata in C minor by little-known Venetian baroque composer Giovanni Battista Pescetti (1704-1766). Originally conceived on harpsichord, Chochieva coaxed a luscious and velvety sonority on the modern grand piano with deft and sensitive pedaling. Its three short movements were binary (each with two halves) in form, playing and sounding like a sequence of Domenico Scarlatti sonatas.

Dance-like in feel, this was the perfect appetiser for Davidsbündlertänze (Op.6) by Robert Schumann (1810-1856), a succession of 18 short character studies opening with a boisterous yet beguiling mazurka. The German composer’s imaginary League of David which this work celebrates represented the ideals of contemporary composition which he dearly espoused.

Among the characters were the conflicting alter egos Florestan and Eusebius, reflecting the extroverted and introverted sides to his personality. Chochieva weathered the movements’ many dynamic shifts with much aplomb. Overcoming treacherous challenges in the Florestan movements and finding poetry in the Eusebius movements made this an absorbing reading from start to finish.

Particularly striking was the penultimate 17th movement, with a reminiscence of the gorgeously beautiful 2nd movement - revealing the true meaning of nostalgia – before dissolving into a slow final waltz to close the work on a sublime note.

The entire second half was devoted to Soviet era Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953). Before one decried a penchant for dissonance, Chochieva revealed him to be a Romantic at heart. Three Pieces (Op.95) from the ballet Cinderella – a pavane, a gavotte and a slow waltz - had lyricism as their cores, with her subtly supplying orchestral textures around the melodies.

Photo: Pianomaniac

These were palate-cleansers before the onslaught that was his Sixth Sonata in A major (Op.82), composed during wartime. The opening movement is renowned for its pummeling brutality, and Chochieva amply delivered by the fistful, but her musical sensibilities were never found wanting.

The middle movements were dances. The first was angular and grotesque but infused with ironic humour, while the second was a slow waltz, its troubled Romanticism mirroring the preceding dances from Cinderella. A machine gun brilliance lit up the finale, with a resumption of earlier hostilities. Chochieva’s keen and incisive fingerwork, unlike the Soviet troops at Stalingrad (the sonata’s occasional nickname), took no prisoners.

Her encores were also tantalisingly varied. The quickfire of Rachmaninov’s Etude-tableaux in A minor (Op.39 No.6), sometimes called “Little Red Riding Hood” sharply contrasted with the bluesy elegance of Soviet era Ukrainian jazz composer Alexander Tsfasman’s slow foxtrot Stay With Me. Chochieva’s fine recital was certainly one to remember.

Photo: Pianomaniac

Photography by Ung Ruey Loon

A review of the same concert on Bachtrack.com:

In Singapore, Zlata Chochieva impresses in Schumann and Prokofiev | Bachtrack

A PIANO RECITAL NOT TO MISS: ZLATA CHOCHIEVA on 16 August 2025

You know the drill. In a year full of piano recitals, here is another one not to be missed. Russian pianist ZLATA CHOCHIEVA makes a welcome return, an automatic re-booking after her excellent recital (re)creations in 2021. Now Poetry, Passion & Prokofiev showcases more of her remarkable pianism, which goes beyond mere technical virtuosity. She is a real artist with valid things to say in her playing.

Her programme:

G.B.PESCETTI Sonata in C minor

SCHUMANN Davidsbundlertanze, Op.6

PROKOFIEV Three Pieces 

   from Cinderella, Op.95

PROKOFIEV Sonata No.6 in A major, Op.82

Victoria Concert Hall

Saturday, 16 August 2025 at 8 pm

Book your tickets here:

Piano Recital by Zlata Chochieva Poetry, Passion & Prokofiev

Now watch this video:

Zlata Chochieva plays

Prokofiev's Second Piano Concerto

(1st movement)

Mendelssohn-Rachmaninov

Scherzo from 

A Midsummer Night's Dream

Zlata Chochieva 

is presented by Altenburg Arts.

(RE)CREATIONS: ZLATA CHOCHIEVA PIANO RECITAL / Review

(RE)CREATIONS

ZLATA CHOCHIEVA Piano Recital

Victoria Concert Hall

Saturday (6 November 2021)

 

Young Berlin-based Russian pianist Zlata Chochieva’s debut recital in Singapore, presented by Altenburg Arts, was titled (re)creations but it could have easily been The Art of Transcription. Recitals of piano transcriptions are curious affairs, and Chochieva’s selection of Ignaz Friedman, Franz Liszt and Sergei Rachmaninov transcriptions was especially astute by mixing the popular with the obscure.

 

Transcriptions of Polish pianist-composer Ignaz Friedman (1882-1948) are less well-known alongside those of Liszt, Busoni and Rachmaninov, but stand up very well by comparison. The recital opened with his transcription of the Adagio in G minor from a harpsichord sonata by Italian Giovanni Battista Grazioli (1746-1820). His dates suggest the classical period, but its lovely Mozartian melody was dressed up in such luscious textures as to look forward to the Romantic era.

 

Delicately but beautifully played, it made for great contrasts with Friedman’s take on the bustling first movement of J.S.Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No.3. Originally for strings, this imposing transcription took on orchestral dimensions, and one imagines the colours of winds and brass amidst the busy counterpoint. Similarly, the Tempo di Minuetto second movement from Mahler’s Third Symphony was crisply delivered and alive in orchestral detail, especially fantastical scherzo-like effects of its trio section. These true rarities served a total delight.

Photo: Ung Ruey Loon

 

The recital’s centrepiece were the five movements from Ravel’s Miroirs (Mirrors), a masterclass of crafting exquisite sonorities. Exemplary pedalling and featherlight touches distinguished Oiseaux tristes (Sad Birds) and La vallée des cloches (The Valley of Bells), where echoes hung and lingered ever so tantalisingly, while shimmering textures defined Noctuelles (Night Moths) and Une barque sur l’ocean (A Boat on the Ocean). In the latter, the focus was not on the vessel but the inexorable play of lapping waves building up to each crest. The strumming guitars in Alborada del gracioso (Morning Song of the Jester) were vividly realised, a Spanish rhapsody that climaxed in a slew of sweeping glissandi. All this makes one yearn for Chochieva’s view of Gaspard de la nuit. The next time, perhaps?

 

The recital’s final third belonged to song and dance transcriptions, with mostly Liszt as protagonist. His transcriptions of Schubert’s lieder Wohin? (Whither) from Die Schöne Mullerin, Litanei and Auf dem Wasser zu singen (To Be Sung On The Water) are established classics. All through Chochieva’s playing, the warm glow of melodic lines were never blurred by accompanying figurations and filigree. Simplicity also reigned in Mendelssohn’s Auf Flügeln des Gesanges (On Wings of Song), where true cantabile soared unimpeded to nether reaches.

Photo: Ung Ruey Loon

 

Rachmaninov’s transcription of Mendelssohn’s Scherzo from A Midsummer Night’s Dream is justifiably considered one of the most fearsome piano pieces ever dreamt of. Yet Chochieva hardly raised a sweat in its prestidigitations, accomplished with a lightness of touch that is enviable. Lovers of legendary recordings of Benno Moiseiwitsch and Rachmaninov himself will find a pianist of their equal here, and to experience it live is a rare privilege. Finally, the gemütlichkeit of the Gärtner-Friedman Viennese Dance No.1 provided a delicious end to the recital proper.

 

Tumultuous applause led to three encores: Chopin’s “Black Key” Étude (Op.10 No.5) with teasingly placed rubatos, the wild romp of the Mussorgsky-Rachmaninov Hopak from Sorochintsy Fair and Pierre Sancan’s coruscating Toccata to crown an evening of pianistic magnificence. 

A HUSUM DIARY 2016 / Days Seven, Eight and Nine

Sightseeing: the harbour of Flensburg,
near the Danish border.

Thursday (25 August)

Recital 10: Martin Jones (7.30 pm)

The septuagenarian English pianist Martin Jones was re-invited to the festival on the strength of his recital on 26 August last year, and he did not disappoint. Like before, he began with some Czerny, his Souvenir de Peste, a set of variations on a very banal theme written for amateurs of the day. Despite Jones' ardent advocacy, one performance is enough for one lifetime. 

Next were the three Images Oubliées of Debussy, works that were only published as late as the 1970s. The 2^nd movement's Sarabande is identical to the one in Pour le piano, while the fast finale shares the same folk melody as that in Jardins sous la pluie. This set is regularly recorded in integrale sets of Debussy but seldom performed in concerts. Completing the first half was five Earl Wild transcriptions of Rachmaninov romances. Jones plays each with a beautiful tone, and summons all the resources available for Floods of Spring, which gets a truly thunderous performance.

Australian composer Graham Hair provided more technical fodder in three of his Transcendental Studies, which sound as fiendish as they are fun. Jean Francaix's Éloge de la dance is a play on the waltz rhythm and idiom, with some off kilter moments as if one had a glass of champagne too many. 

Fun defines Franz Reizenstein's Variations on the Lambeth Walk, which has the popular melody dressed in the styles of Chopin, Verdi, Beethoven, Mozart, Schubert, Wagner and Liszt. There was much mirth and giggles from the audience, and these turned into gasps for the encores by Grainger, Moszkowski, Arlen-Rachmaninov-Mann (Over The Rainbow), Pierne and Tchaikovsky-Wild. The little cygnets took a little tumble but like water off a swan's back, got back to the lake in a most graceful way.  

For his hard work, Martin Jones
gets a model Kowloon Motor Bus
which came all the way from Hong Kong

  

Sightseeing: a fantastic view of the Holstein Gate
and Salt Warehouses from the
Petrikirche (St Peter's Church) in Lübeck.

Friday (26 August 2016)

Recital 11: Zlata Chochieva (7.30 pm)

The name of young Russian Zlata Chochieva is familiar on the strength of her excellent recordings of Chopin and Rachmaninov Études on the Piano Classics label. Up live, she fully lives up to those lofty expectations. Her first half had a nice mix of Galuppi, C.P.E.Bach (which always unfamiliar but crisply minted such that one asks “why have we not heard that before?), hyphenated Bach, hyphenated Franck and Liszt.

One question that lingered was: wasn't that Bach Siciliano by Kempff rather than Friedmann as indicated in the notes. Trust the ever-trustworthy Ludwig Madlener to whip up his iPad with a pdf score and the mystery is solved. Chochieva did play the Kempff version after all. There was Liszt's blustery transcription of Bach's Fantasy and Fugue in G minor (BWV.542) and Friedman's transcription of the Franck's Prelude, Fugue & Variation, which does not sound too different from the Harold Bauer version. Liszt was represented by a Klavierstuck, the totally unfamiliar but beautiful Hymne de la nuit, contrasted with  the rather nastily percussive Csardas Macabre so to end the first half with a bang.

The second half opened with one of Medtner's Skazki and the lovely Canzonata Serenata, which unfolded with great ease and fluidity. That was merely the prelude to Rachmaninov's monumental 40-minute First Sonata in D minor, a Faustian symphony in three movements all but in name. Chochieva has recorded this too, and the live version is just as good. Her prodigious technique is equal to all its ferocious demands, including a Mefistophelean final ride to the abyss that had one on the edge of the seat.  

The amigos at Hartmann's:
with Satoru, Ludwig and French critic
Bertrand Boissard.

  

The restored Gatehouse of Schloss vor Husum.

Saturday (27 August 2016)

Earlier in the day, Jesper Buhl and Bryce Morrison
had a lively discussion and debate on who had a
greater impact on piano music: Schnabel or Horowitz?

Recital 12: Cyprien Katsaris & Helene Mercier (6 pm)

Cyprien Katsaris is back, after rescuing the festival last year when a scheduled pianist had cancelled at the eleventh hour. With him was the French-Canadian Helene Mercier (perhaps better known as Louis Lortie's partner in a number of Chandos piano duo recordings) in a programme which was a repeat of a recording of Schumann and Brahms on Katsaris' Piano 21 label. To begin were a selection of Schubert Ländler transcribed by Brahms for four hands on one piano. Pleasant, but neither vintage nor memorable Schubert, but nicely done.

The serious business began with Clara Schumann's 1857 transcription of her late husband's famous Piano Quintet in E flat major Op.44. The duo's recording sounded richly sonorous but in reality, the live version on two pianos was a clangourous and banging affair, with no strings to cushion the blows. It also did not help that both pianists did not gel completely together. Its four movements started to sound percussive and it was almost a relief when it all ended.

Less problematic was Brahms' Sonata in F minor Op.34b, which has the same music as his familiar Piano Quintet. Here the duo worked better, and there was much passion and tenderness in its pages. The third movement's relentless march was very well held together, and the finale came as a tour de force. If only the last two bars had come with a true vehemence, it would have been close to a perfect reading. The duo’s encores were two lesser known Hungarian Dances by Brahms, and true to form for this festival, Katsaris said that they tried to avoid the familiar ones.

One week and two days had come to an end so quickly, and I was sorry to see the festival close. There was a usual round of speeches, a buffet dinner with drinks, but the post-festival gloom was only relieved by the thought that the Rarities of Piano Music at Schloss vor Husum would continue in a year's time. Come 19-26 August 2017, pianophiles and old friends would gather again to share in the sheer joy of experiencing live music at its finest. All thanks to Peter Froundjian and his wonderful team, and to quote a certain Arnie Schwarzenegger, “I'll be back!” 

Seeing double: Fritz from Switzerland,
and Norbert from Germany,
or is it the other way round?

Good things have to come to an end,
final drinks and dinner!

Bidding farewell to Husum:
Daniel Berman (who will perform in 2017),
Ludwig & Kathrin Homburg.