“… Completely void of artificial affectations, and negotiating Chopin’s filigree passagework with effortless, liquid finesse, her performance was a triumph of natural expression and unswerving musicality.

Steffens responded to her every nuance, shaping the orchestral phrases with reflective intuition, coaxing delicious sounds from Chopin’s notoriously undernourished orchestral writing – though the only effective solution to the awkward trumpet writing would be to rescore it – and ensuring this performance was not just about the virtuosity of the soloist.
That moment came with Chocheva’s inevitable encore, the dexterous thrills of Chopin’s Black Key Étude, as mesmerising to the eye as to the ear.”
Ken Walton