Scriabin and Mozart: two composers rarely associated, yet the juxtaposition here seems clear when performed by Zlata Chochieva. In this first album, the Russian pianist, new to the naïve label, is ingenious in both the cycles of fragmented variations and the more opulent sonatas or preludes.

This project is inspired by the 150th anniversary of Scriabin’s birth, but Zlata Chochieva has been a fan of the Russian composer since her childhood, as he was the first to appeal to her emotions as a listener and performer. Associating him with the classical Mozart - rather than a romantic composer, as is usually the case - enables Zlata Chochieva to conjure up an unexpected kinship that benefits from her vibrant and graceful style, rising to thrilling virtuosity. “The perfection in the phrasing, the polyphony and the formal proportions, plus the concision and the lack of superfluous notes are just some of the points that link Scriabin to Mozart,” she explains.

“Scriabin has always aspired to clarity, transparency, and weightlessness. He also found the idea of a synthesis between music and literature very interesting. Just some of the things he shared with Mozart.” These ideas subconsciously follow Zlata Chochieva’s career: she trained in Moscow under Mikhail Pletnev and Pavel Nersessian, then at the Salzburg Mozarteum with Jacques Rouvier - where she now teaches.

For her first album with naïve, Zlata Chochieva has compiled a carefully proportioned, symmetrical programme, values appreciated by both composers: she pairs two cycles of Mozart variations inspired by themes from Duport and Gluck - a whole range of lively comic pieces interspersed with rare and poignant slow movements - with opus 15 and 16 by Scriabin, and with his virtuosic Third Sonata and his enigmatic Tenth.

“They all combine both light and shade, but my original idea was to introduce Mozart as a ray of light in the apocalyptic skies of Scriabin.”