Editor’s Corner - December 2021
December 6, 2021
by David Olds

“The last track travels across two and a half centuries: Thomas Kotcheff’s Cadenza (with or without Haydn), a 25-minute work written in 2020 meant to serve (or not) as a cadenza for Haydn’s Cello Concerto in C Major from 1761.

Listening to this piece led to the realization of how a cadenza – traditionally a composed or improvised interlude in a concerto giving the soloist an opportunity show off – differs from a stand-alone work that needs to provide its own context and development. Collins tells us that “Kotcheff’s work contains musical nods to the other works on the album and ties everything together in an energetic and surprise-filled adventure.” It certainly does that. When listening to the disc before reading the program notes, one of those surprises was hearing Britten’s solo sonata, which I consider another milestone in the solo cello repertoire, quoted in a work “about” Haydn. The notes also give this a context however. It seems that Britten wrote a cadenza for Rostropovich for the same Haydn concerto and the result can be heard in a 1964 recording with Britten conducting “Slava” and the English Chamber Orchestra (it’s well worth searching out on YouTube). Collins rises to all the various challenges of the diverse repertoire on this collection, especially those of the “cadenza” which requires everything from virtuosic bombast to the most subtle intimacy.” READ MORE

Hannah Collins: Resonance Lines
November 2021

“The recording culminates with Kotcheff's cheekily titled Cadenza (with or without Haydn), which makes reference to the album's other pieces during its sixteen minutes. Conceived as a cadenza for Haydn's Cello Concerto in C major, Hob.VIIb:1 and alternating fluidly between high-energy and contemplative episodes, the work is an intense showstopper that grants Collins a magnificent forum for her gifts as a player and interpreter.” READ MORE

November Short Fuses - Materia Critica
November 4, 2021
by Jonathan Blumhofer

“Saariaho’s Sept Papillons, essentially a study in short gestural and sonic figures, serves as an introduction to Britten’s 1964 Suite, which, itself, sets up Kotcheff’s wild, wacky mash-up of all the music on this album – plus nods to Haydn’s C-major Cello Concerto.”

…

“Kotcheff’s inventive Cadenza is a dazzling showpiece. How the writing holds these disparate style and musical languages together is something that must be heard to be believed but – trust me – it manages. Collins isn’t once thrown by its demands; on the contrary: she owns them.” READ MORE

Review: The crazy genius of playing Messiaen’s 13 bird-inspired piano solos at L.A.'s Audubon Center
September 27, 2021
by Mark Swed

“Although single-minded birder pianists with technique to burn (an extremely small species) do attempt the complete manic “Catalogue,” which lasts close to three hours in performance, Piano Spheres realistically split the duties among 13 soloists. That included the series’ core artists Vicki Ray, Mark Robson, Thomas Kotcheff and Sarah Gibson, along with guest pianists, well-known and newcomers.”

…

“Kotcheff (black-eared wheatear), Steven Vanhauwaert (woodlark), Danny Holt (short-toed lark) and David Kaplan (black wheatear) trusted their magnificent pianism to bring birds vividly to life. In a fast and furious performance, Yevgeniy Milyavskiy was the extreme example of this, bringing a massive sound to the reed warbler’s massive world.” READ MORE

Jennifer Koh’s Pandemic Project: 39 New Pieces for Solo Violin
September 27, 2021
by Richard S. Ginell

“Thomas Kotcheff’s vacuum packed quotes and mangles Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto (his word is “bastardization”) in an old-school virtuoso display for Koh.” READ MORE

‘Insurrection Songs’: Rzewski Redux, Only This Time It’s Global
May 8, 2021
by Richard S. Ginell

“The young pianist du jour, Thomas Kotcheff, has become a fixture on the crowded Los Angeles piano scene, being one half of the HOCKET piano duo and now a regular performer on the Piano Spheres series at the Colburn School of Music’s Zipper Hall. It was there where the recording was made, and Kotcheff nails the piece’s challenges and rides out its weaker stretches while treated to excellent sound and acoustics.” READ MORE

Rzewski setzt der Musik des Widerstands erneut ein Denkmal
Rzewski is once again a monument to the music of resistance
March 3, 2021
by Martin Blaumeiser

Translated from the original German:
“Masterful...the intensity of his playing as a whole, his understanding of the musical processes, also his sense of the passages where the keyboard is not played, but strings are plucked or wood or metal struts in the grand piano processed - also such a trademark of Rzewski - is wonderfully developed. The music of the new cycle may not be as ostensibly virtuoso as in The People United Will Never Be Defeated!, but pianistically very demanding. In terms of sound, Kotcheff always succeeds in enjoying the large, often abrupt dynamic differences as special moments of tension. And empathy always resonates not only for the music, but also for its original creator in crisis situations - that is more than just beautiful, but shaped by deep humanism, which is so directly conveyed to the listener.” READ MORE

Thomas Kotcheff’s Quite Revolution in Songs of Insurrection
January 19, 2021
by Catherine Womack

“With sparse pedaling, unhurried tempos, and pointed melodic clarity throughout, Kotcheff’s exquisitely detailed performance of the songs often evokes the aesthetic of Stravinsky’s neoclassical piano works. Rests are carefully observed and notes are released with as much clarity of intention as they are depressed. Melodies speak simply, articulately.”

“Kotcheff’s extraordinary attention to detail here illuminates both the fiery emotion and surgical precision inherent in Rzewski’s compositions, as well as in any meaningful insurrection that leads to lasting social change.” READ MORE

Soundcheck
The Wire 444, February 2021
by Julian Cowley

"Kotcheff, playing with just the right combination of vigour and sensitivity, matches the continuous modulations of mood in this music and the plurality of stylistic twists and turns woven seamlessly into its fabric." READ MORE

Virtuosity and Protest: Frederic Rzewski's Songs of Insurrection receives its first recording
January 12, 2021
by Robert Hugill

“Kotcheff certainly takes this music in his stride, and whilst the piano technique required seems to hold no terrors for him, he does not make the performance about his technique but about the music.” READ MORE

Music from behind a mask: Schell’s picks for 2020
January 2, 2021
by Michael Schell

“Yet another formidable octogenarian and veteran of the American avant-garde chimes in with a new and substantive work, perhaps his most compelling solo piano composition since De Profundis. Rzewski’s Songs of Insurrection sets seven revolutionary and protest songs from around the world, among them Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Around and the anti-Nazi Die Moorsoldaten. The delivery is exclusively instrumental—soloist Thomas Kotcheff doesn’t sing or speak the song lyrics—and without texts, there’s little basis for an uninformed listener to associate a political message with any of the tunes (something that’s also of Rzewski’s The People United Will Never Be Defeated!). It demonstrates how the most enduring politically-motivated art music tends to be that which is most abstract. Rzewski’s setting of Grândola, Vila Morena (associated with the Carnation revolution in Portugal) is typical of the set. It begins and ends with Crumb-like knocking on the body of the piano, with an Ivesian fantasy on the song’s melody in the middle.” READ MORE

Best of 2020: Classical
December 26, 2020
by Jeremy Shatan

“Could there have been a better year to release the world-premiere recording of this 2016 piece? Well, maybe any of the last four, but I'm happy to have it now. Rzewski's applies his pointed and inventive variations to a global lineup of resistance songs, ranging from Ain't Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Around, that anthem of the Civil Rights movement, to Oh Bird, Oh Bird, Oh Roller, from a 19th-century Korean peasant uprising. Along with Rzewski's tart compositional approach, Kotcheff's stylish playing, including some fearless improv, ties all of these varied works together and reveals a piano work for the ages. And even if you wouldn't sing along to any of these at a protest, as Ted Hearne suggests in the wise essay included in the smartly assembled booklet, we can always ‘think of the concert hall as the setting, and perhaps the subject, of the protest itself.’” READ MORE

Music Theory and Ear Training Faculty Thomas Kotcheff Releases Timely Album of Rzewski’s Songs of Insurrection
December 4, 2020
by Leila Bishop

“Frederic Rzewski has built his career on writing exquisite protest music, and Colburn’s own music theory and ear training faculty Thomas Kotcheff recently released a recording of Rzewski’s Songs of Insurrection with a nod to current times. Featuring essays by Colburn faculty member Kristi Brown-Montesano and other musicians in our community, as well as photography by Los Angeles photographer J Pinder, this album encapsulates how this last year has felt for many. We caught up with Thomas to ask him about his experience recording such a vital album in such a turbulent time.” READ MORE

The Music of More: A Young Pianist Plays a Modern Master
Thomas Kotcheff has released a new recording of Frederic Rzewski’s dense, politically charged “Songs of Insurrection.”
December 1, 2020
by Seth Colter Walls

“This progressive approach to intellectual property has, along with his simultaneously brainy and passionate music, endeared Mr. Rzewski to a younger generation of pianists. That includes Thomas Kotcheff, 32, who released the first commercial recording of Mr. Rzewski’s 2016 set of piano pieces, “Songs of Insurrection,” in November on the Coviello imprint. The album emerged with Mr. Rzewski’s permission, but also his aesthetic blessing. The promotional materials include testimonials from him: “It’s superb” and “I love your improvisations!” Mr. Kotcheff handles the piece’s globe-spanning allusions — this time, Mr. Rzewski has adapted resistance tunes from Germany, Russia, Ireland, Portugal, Spain, Korea and the United States — with flair. The album deserves a place next to this composer’s own authoritative recordings of his music.” READ MORE

Thomas Kotcheff: Songs of Insurrection by Frederic Rzewski
December 2020

"In Kotcheff, Rzewski has found a most sympathetic interpreter whose sensibility is clearly attuned to his own. The conviction the pianist brings to this magnificent recording of the composer's work attests to the powerful bond the two clearly share.” READ MORE

For the Record: November 13, 2020
November 13, 2020
by Steve Smith

“Kotcheff is an outstanding pianist, both alone and in the duo HOCKET – whose pandemic-quarantine commissioning project, #What2020SoundsLike, is among the year’s more remarkable initiatives – and an excellent composer as well. Quite likely it’s because Kotcheff is precisely that triple threat – a skillful soloist, collaborator, and composer – that matches him so ideally to the music of Frederic Rzewski, an artist who is himself all those things and more besides.”

“What results is a thoughtful, comprehensive package that does all of its participants proud.” READ MORE

On record: classical — November 8
November 8, 2020
by Paul Driver

“This seven-part, 71-minute opus follows on from Rzewski’s celebrated piano variations The People United Will Never Be Defeated! (1975). It is similarly engaged by politics and protest, in overt and subtly structural ways. Each movement opens with a folk song and develops a complex response that includes improvisation. It isn’t easy to know when the latter is happening, but ambiguity is in the nature of musical modernism. The US pianist Kotchej is assuredly on top of the challenge.” READ MORE

Alinde Quartet: Schubert
Schubert 200th-anniversary project has a good start with inspired programming
November 2020
by Julian Haylock

“Thomas Kotcheff’s ten-minute Unbegun, composed especially for this series, is based on the first six bars of Schubert’s 1827 song Alinde D904 (from which the quartet get its name), its startling glissandos and sense of galvanising drama finding release in an overwhelming sunshine outburst of open strings. Placed after D87 and just before the Quartettsatz, it thrillingly offsets the music that surrounds it, providing ample justification for the quartet’s inspired programming.Thomas Kotcheff’s ten-minute Unbegun, composed especially for this series, is based on the first six bars of Schubert’s 1827 song Alinde D904 (from which the quartet get its name), its startling glissandos and sense of galvanising drama finding release in an overwhelming sunshine outburst of open strings. Placed after D87 and just before the Quartettsatz, it thrillingly offsets the music that surrounds it, providing ample justification for the quartet’s inspired programming.” READ MORE

Review: The Planters
October 23, 2020
by Nicholas Vargo

“As funny and entertaining The Planters is, arguably its strongest element is its music. Thomas Kotcheff (brother of Alexandra) delivers a fun and playful score that accentuates every scene and character to its full advantage, and the original songs by Phil Danyew range from funky to melancholy (“I Can’t Stand the Heat” is an absolute standout). The Planters might not be for everyone, but its music is undeniably magic.” READ MORE

The Planters: Review
October 14, 2020
by Heidi Sharpley

“Music and sound is a key trigger for the audience of the Planters. Thomas Kotcheff’s compositions are inspiring.” READ MORE

Classical CDs Weekly: Mahler, Vaughan Williams, Sandbox Percussion
Two very different symphonies and some new music for percussion
September 12, 2020
by Graham Rickson

“And not only that one but that one & that too by Thomas Kotcheff was inspired by the contents of Sandbox’s shelves and the personalities of the four musicians. Unsung wooden sound makers get a chance to shine in the first section, followed by a showcase for drums and a glittering, melodic study for pitched metal instruments. Entertainment and musical substance in a handy package, and the recorded sound has incredible presence.” READ MORE

Audience Choice Awards 2019–2020: Los Angeles Area Winners
August 25, 2020
by Peter Feher

Best Instrumental Recital Performance: Piano Spheres — Thomas Kotcheff plays Rzewski: Songs of Insurrection
”It was dueling pianists in the “Instrumental Recital” category this year, and Thomas Kotcheff edged out Yuja Wang for the win. His March performance of Frederic Rzewski’s hour-long Songs of Insurrection, presented by Piano Spheres, was up in several other categories: “Best Chamber Performance,” “Best New Music Performance.” But it takes the gold here. Relive Kotcheff’s performance, or watch it for the first time, on YouTube.” READ MORE

CD Review: Sandbox Percussion shows its unique voice in “And That One Too”
March 19, 2020
by Olivia Kieffer

“Tracks 7 through 9 contain the three movements of Thomas Kotcheff’s work, which inspired the album’s title, not only that one but that one & that too. Part I is entirely wood sounds: claves, vibraslap, woodblocks, slapstick, wood slats, and guiro. Kotcheff wanted to take the orchestral instruments that are normally used as auxiliary, and make them the centerpiece. Part II slowly builds over 8 minutes, and is all played on drums. The piece has an additive process, followed by several variations. It develops into Xenakis-esque drum mania: the unison rhythms and sparseness combined with absolutely frenetic drumming. Part III is a jingly metals fantasy. It ascends and descends into high and low metals. The music moves from slow to fast to slow in alternation. In the last moments, it spreads into the sound of church bells on fast-forward, followed by unison hits for the last 2 minutes, with less instruments struck each time, til we are left with one extremely quiet note. It’s fitting that And That One Too starts and ends with ringing metals. The whole album is sonorous, and, simply put, wonderful. I look forward to hearing more new music from Sandbox Percussion.” READ MORE

And That One Too: Sandbox Percussion Showcases Close Collaborators
March 17, 2020
by James May

“The album then wraps up with Thomas Kotcheff’s not only that one but that one & that too, the piece from which the release derives its title. While Kotcheff’s three-movement piece marks a return to the familiar aesthetics of the first half of the album, the work is an absolute knockout. From disarmingly precise silences to unapologetic polyrhythms, it’s impossible to lose interest in his constantly shifting material, even if the first movements seem overtly similar in form. While the whole piece is superb, the third movement is especially impressive. Fast, metallic clangs open a luscious space of transients and overtones that eventually transition to a faster section. The transition isn’t as clean as earlier ones, but the climax more than accounts for it—a ferocious swelling that left this listener starstruck. It’s emotionally gripping and orchestrationally brilliant, and Kotcheff knowingly ends the piece with a meditative reduction of this captivating material.” READ MORE

Record Review: And That One Too (Sandbox Percussion)
March 2020

“The disc draws its title from Thomas Kotcheff’s not only that one but that one & that too, whose three movements give Sandbox members Jonathan Allen, Victor Caccese, Ian Rosenbaum and Terry Sweeney many opportunities to connect on a multiplicity of instruments while evoking haunting and ritualistic soundscapes. Silence is as crucial in Kotcheff’s creation as are hushed gestures, ominous rumblings and bold action. Playing in this Sandbox must be bliss for these sophisticated artists.” READ MORE

Commentary: As the L.A. Phil prepares for Power to the People! festival, Ives sets the stage
March 4, 2020
by Mark Swed

“It is now the 45th anniversary of Rzewski’s most famous work, the hour-long set of variations on the Chilean protest song, “The People United Will Never Be Defeated!” which Conrad Tao will play next week as part of Power to the People! Tuesday night, however, for his Piano Spheres debut at Zipper Hall in L.A., Thomas Kotcheff gave a dazzling performance of Rzewski’s recent “Songs of Insurrection.” The 70-minute cycle of seven pieces is based on protest songs of the oppressed from America, Russia, Germany and elsewhere. Unlike the tightly knit “People United,” this is a fantastically spontaneous-sounding eruption of ever-changing keyboard invention. Rzewski puts in places for improvisation, but all of it sounds improvisational and, in its banging, creativity and insistence, a lot like the few improvisations that Ives recorded at the piano.” READ MORE

New Music Seekers Drawn to Tuesday Evenings at Monk Space
January 12, 2018
by Jim Farber

“Thomas Kotcheff is a composer to watch out for. A local L.A. talent by way of Yale and USC, his piece for five cellos, Go in in in in & in began almost exactly like the two cello pieces that had come before. Then the piece blew them out of the water with its wonderfully quirky, modulating slurs from dissonance to full-voiced chromatic chords, while paying homage to John Adams’ Shaker Loops in the way Kotcheff employs propulsive, locomotive rhythms. It ended the concert on a high note.” READ MORE

Kettle Corn Hosts Sandbox Percussion
September 25, 2014
by Aaron Holloway-Nahum

“After a rather customary opening in Kotcheff’s Part and Parcel – where the four percussionists first took turns, then layered on top of one another – the moment when we first heard a unison chord struck on metallic pipes (which were borrowed from the set-up for David Lang’s the so-called laws of nature) was truly beautiful and inspired. Perhaps Kotcheff could have been braver in placing more space and stillness around this sound. The short piece was thrilling, though. It ebbed and flowed in intensity before building to a thunderous unison climax, and its music has stayed with me long after the evening.” READ MORE