Benjamin Hochman | Pianist

"Fluidity and resiliency were two hallmarks of Mr. Hochman's playing, and they came to the fore immediately in the Praeambulum to Bach's Partita No. 5, executed with the smoothness of cream but the transparency of water."
—The New York Times

“Pianist Benjamin Hochman was a powerful protagonist in Prokofiev’s spiritual odyssey.”—The Washington Post

“Benjamin Hochman, making his PSO debut, displayed the sort of Mozartean touch and clean tone that you can’t teach. The Israeli pianist played with attention to line, patience in phrasing (especially in cadenzas) and some of the best trills I have heard. One sublime passage in the first movement had Hochman echoing himself exquisitely, and he switched intuitively from melancholy to upbeat in that temperamental middle movement.”—Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

“Hochman’s playing was serene, virtually Olympian in its overview.”—Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

“This was big, bold music making, perfect for the incipient Romantic sensibilities of a composer who still seems to be underplayed even though his fame is universal.  Mr. Hochman especially played the stuffing out of [Mendelssohn’s D major] sonata. His solo passagework in the hymnal section of the Adagio was positively inspiring.”
—The New York Sun

"Barely moving at the piano, he played [Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 9 in E flat major, K.271] with a refreshingly unaffected style, with nicely shaped phrasing and pristine articulation. The slow movement was a highlight, with its smiling-through-tears quality and the pianist's luminous touch in its long-breathed themes."
—The Cincinnati Enquirer

“Anton Webern’s Variations for Piano Op. 27 were hypnotic in their sharp precision and reflected music as pure as crystal. In the breathtaking playing of Hochman the musical material was brought to abstract wholeness.”—Haaretz (Israel)

"With a sound-painter's intensity and shimmering transparency he performed the 'Etampes' of Debussy. The Brahms Sonata No. 3 F-Moll Op. 5, a hard nugget both musically and technically, revealed him to be a master of his profession. Virtuosity and charged emotionality truly merged."
—Neue Ruhr Zeitung

“Hochman’s demeanor is poised, and quietly confident.  His playing is beautiful to hear.  From the first moment, his crisp, articulated touch was noticeable, clear but not forceful, even with pedal, and he shaped the phrases in the long cadenza with grace.”—Seattle Post-Intelligencer

“A superb pianist. The glowing heart of the concert was a performance by Hochman and the Jerusalem Quartet of Schumann’s Piano Quintet. The playing by these five typified the ideal of chamber music as a humane conversation about essential things.”—The Globe and Mail

“Such breathless perfection that time seemed to stand still.”—The Kansas City Star

“A white-heat performance.”—The Vancouver Sun