“With a Flick of the Wrist Zlata Chochieva Delights the Audience at the Berlin Piano Festival”
“This concert immediately turned out as a thrilling finale—almost as if everything Chochieva’s pianist colleagues (who had been exclusively male so far) had performed before was directed towards Sergei Rachmaninov’s D minor Sonata, Op. 28, which concluded the Moscow-born pianist’s recital, and served as a final chord to the whole festival. <…> Remarkably, she defined every detail of her performance, from the brooding onset via the lyric melancholy of the middle movement to the cracking finale, within the organic flow of a superordinate whole—and this might be considered a deliberately shaped atmosphere, gaining its specific value from the interaction of the previous and the subsequent. This fascinating experience, unique in its intensity and homogeneity, was preceded by a somewhat fragmented, yet intelligently designed programme of 18 separate movements before and after the intermission.”
– Berliner Zeitung, Gerald Felber

“Zlata Chochieva’s unique Chopin and Rachmaninoff arrive in Vancouver”
BEST MUSICAL EVENT OF 2019 IN VANCOUVER
“<…> The current concert of the Etudes Op.25 and Rachmaninoff’s Corelli Variations did not disappoint: the pianistic strength, thoughtfulness and individuality of this 34-year-old Russian artist are exceptional by any standard. But it was not just her strong technical capabilities that impressed. It was more the immediacy of her grasp of the meaning and significance of the music being played, and the human face she gives to it. While always faithful to the score, the sense of absorption in her playing suspends one very quickly and never lets go, weaving narrative lines that add up to a striking emotional whole. This is pianism of great character, and the concentration Chochieva achieves over the longer span is magnetic. <…> It’s interesting to watch how she selects colours and techniques to probe the specifics of what she is playing; there is nothing remotely uniform about what she employs. Nonetheless, her decisions seem natural and convincing, sufficiently so that one forgets her technique and just thinks about the music. <…> Rachmaninoff’s solo piano variations have a tendency to sprawl in lesser hands, but Chochieva had her finger on the composer’s nerve-ends and method of structural development in the Corelli Variations. She fashioned a reading of strong organic unity: I’ve rarely heard its dramatic arc so well defined. <…> I can think of few finer piano recitals than this. Chochieva never attempts to endow the music with extra drama or interpretation: she just reveals her personal struggle to expose the music as it is. Her probing honesty and imagination place the listener in a multi-layered emotional world which is both evolving and immediate, and one simply feels impelled to follow her.”
– Seen and Heard International, Geoffrey Newman
https://seenandheard-international.com/2019/11/zlata-chochievas-unique-chopin-and-rachmaninoff-arrive-in-vancouver/

Rachmaninoff Concerto Nr.4 in Aachen
“<…> She did not misuse the tightly built work [Rachmaninoff Concerto Nr. 4] as a playground for virtuoso feats of strength, but attached great importance to a filigree, lean performance, with which she revealed the qualities of the piece in a sovereign and sensitive manner.”
– Aachener Zeitung, PEDRO OBIERA