Washington Classical Review

Her program centered on the form of the fantasy, a genre so varied it can be hard to define. A wide-ranging selection opened with “Evening in Transylvania” from Bartók’s relatively early collection Ten Easy Pieces, a slow, sentimental work in a folk-like tonal realm. Chochieva’s often heavy right hand overemphasized the melody, part of an approach that was not especially careful about crafting sound.

Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 13 (“Quasi una fantasia”) revealed more subtlety in Chochieva’s range. The greatest impression came from passages like the Allegro section of the first movement, where she unleashed explosive power in a showy display. The second movement also felt a little overheated, while most of the expressive possibilities of the third movement remained unexplored. The finale again played to Chochieva’s strengths, Beethoven à la Prokofiev, with a brief turn back to the slow movement’s music before a vigorous coda.

A single bass note in the Library’s magnificent Steinway continued resonating after final chords in the first half. At first seemingly related to Chochieva’s heavy use of the sustaining pedal, it quickly became evident it was a damper malfunction, corrected by a technician at intermission.

The fast pieces among the seven Fantasiestücke, selected from Robert Schumann’s Op. 12 and Op. 111 sets, also suited Chochieva’s temperament. Dazzling fingerwork rolled away almost without effort, and the more heroic pieces proved extremely tempestuous. The quieter selections, however, generally eluded the simplicity of touch required, with Chochieva trying to make too much of them at times.

Chochieva played Bach’s Fantasia and Fugue in G Minor, BWV 542, in the overblown arrangement by Franz Liszt. Making the transcription of a piece originally for organ led to some mind-blowing technical demands, especially left-hand octaves for pedal lines, which the pianist dispatched with remarkable ferocity. Her generous use of the pedal gave the piece added sonic power, especially in what began as a crystal-clear rendition of the celebrated Fugue.

“The Spruce,” a pleasing character piece from Sibelius’s Cinq morceaux, offered a connecting point between the realms of jazz and late romantic music. Played with a cool resolve by Chochieva, the harmonic character was reminiscent of the music of Michel Legrand. Scriabin’s Fantasie in B Minor revealed some of the same chromatic excess, with Chochieva’s thundering left hand and ability to marshal crushing crescendos showing why her recordings of the most daunting piano repertoire have achieved such success.

The evening closed with one of the pianist’s specialties, the showy Fantasia quasi sonata (“Après une lecture du Dante”) from the Second Year of Franz Liszt’s Années de pèlerinage. Chochieva’s resounding technique gave the piece a dramatic edge that suited Liszt, from the biting tritones and shrieking fortes to music of contrasting radiance. The closing section of the latter music, shimmering with harp-like tremolos, proved especially beautiful.

A curious encore provided a secular counterweight to the Liszt piece: Stay with Me, a dreamy foxtrot by jazz musician Alexander Tsfasman. The Soviet-era composer, born in what is now war-torn Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, features on one of Chochieva’s recent recordings.

The Dolce Suono Ensemble performs a Mozart flute quartet, songs of Irving Fine, a trio by Ned Rorem, and a world premiere by David Serkin Ludwig 8 p.m. April 18. loc.gov