Review Zlata Chochieva – Outdoors | concerti.de

“Outdoors” sounds like a rather brief title for an album that deals with musical depictions of nature – but the title refers to the little-known Béla Bartok piano cycle of the same name, for which Zlata Chucheva composed “Night Sounds” as she chose the last piece of her disc double compressed. Thus, as it were, closes the round dance that begins with an “entrance” from Schumann’s “Forest Scenes” through which one can hear some settings of nature created primarily by romantic composers. In their poetic focus, Schumann’s “Forest Scenes” are a model for Ravel’s incomparably more demanding “Miroirs,” which Zlata Chochieva puts into a voice with as much imaginative power and courage on the piano as two of Liszt’s works and his “Petite Histoire”—the latter in addition to a discovery such as Adolf Schulz-Evler’s sparkling reworking of Johann Strauss’ Blue Danube Waltz. The Bechstein D282’s somewhat subdued but nonetheless colorful voice gives this fine production an individual flair.

in the fresh air
Schumann: Forest scenes op. 82, Ravel: Meyerwers, Liszt: Feux follets & Chasse-neige, Draeseke: Petite histoire op. 9, Schulz-Evler: Arabesques on “On the Beautiful Danube”, Bártok: Sounds of the night

Zlata Chucheva (piano)
naive