In all respects I was really not his teacher. He never told me what to write or how to write. Cotel is especially impressed by the fortitude of Hersch's voice. Michael's music pleases, but it's kind of a byproduct. It's kind of an accident.
Timing is everything, as any musician knows.
And Cotel feels timing played a role in Hersch's blistering rise in the classical music sphere. But unlike composers who may be trend-followers, Cotel says Hersch is true to himself. I think that if Michael had been born 10 or 20 years earlier, he'd be doing the same stuff. Also, every section moves so purposefully into the next that it's almost difficult to grasp the greater structure underneath the surface. Hersch's work embodies an almost Mozartean quality of idea pouring into idea.