Two rarely played pianistic masterworks by Rachmaninoff on one disc. The first Piano Sonata and the Chopin Variations suffer unjustly from the fame of their elder brothers (resp. The second Piano Sonata and the Corelli Variations), yet they are truly the works of the same genius, in their broad and expansive romantic language, their pianistic glittering and bravura and their true Russian Soul. They are close to the heart of the young Russian pianist Zlata Chochieva, who makes with these pieces an impressive debut on Piano Classics. Zlata’s technique knows no limits, but it is her exquisite musical taste, her innate melodic feeling and sweeping passion that impresses her audience most deeply. The winner of several important Piano Competitions she embarks on an international career. Stephen Kovacevich said of her: “Zlata Chochieva is one of the most interesting and unusual pianists of today. She has superb technical abilities, but it is her personal intuition in the music she plays that is special…I would be interested to hear anything she does, and that is rare…”.
