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Whispers And Thunder / Illia Ovcharenko

Release Date: 09/05/2025
Label: Steinway & Sons Catalog #: 30219
Composer:  Domenico Scarlatti ,  Franz Liszt ,  Valentin Silvestrov ,  Lev Revutsky Performer:  Illia Ovcharenko

Praised as "technically flawless and impeccably musical" (International Piano), Illia Ovcharenko is one of the world's most celebrated young pianists. The 2022 Honens Prize Laureate debuts on the Steinway & Sons label with a deeply personal program featuring music by composers from his hometown in the Ukraine (Levko Revutsky and Valentin Silvestrov) as well as sonatas by Scarlatti and Liszt.

Album Credits
Recorded January 31- February 1st, 2024 at Sono Luminus Studios, Boyce, Virginia.
Producer: Dan Merceruio
Engineer: Joshua Frey
Mixing and Mastering: Daniel Shores

Executive Producers: Eric Feidner, Jon Feidner, Vivian Chiu
Art Direction: Jackie Read more Fugere
Design: Cover to Cover Design, Anilda Carrasquillo
Photo of Illia Ovcharenko: Monique de St. Croix
Product Coordinator: Renée Oakford
Piano Technician: John Veitch
Piano: Steinway Model D #590904 (New York)


REVIEW:
For many listeners, this release will offer a double introduction. First, it may be your initial encounter with Ukrainian pianist Illia Ovcharenko (b2001). Ovcharenko won the Honens International Piano Competition in 2022 but he?s kept a low profile; this is his first recording on a label with broad visibility. It?s anchored by an astonishing performance of the Liszt Sonata. True, those looking for the stiletto precision of Pollini won't find it here: especially in some of the more swarming passages, sharp focus can be sacrificed for the shape and spirit of the larger gestures. Nor will those seeking Argeric'?s dynamism: Ovcharenko's reading, on the slow side of the mainstream, is less feral. But his interpretation certainly makes its mark with its daring flexibility (note how ready he is to draw you in by stretching fermatas), with its timbral range (he can sear you with Liszt's streaks of semiquavers and caress you with celestial playing in the more reflective moments), and with its command of long-range musical shape (listen to how well he creates a sense of respite at the return of the Grandioso theme towards the end, bar 600). Even more striking is Ovcharenko's control of secondary lines - few readings of the Liszt extract its polyphonic spirit so well.

The release may also serve as an introduction to the music of Ukrainian Levko Revutsky (1889-1977). The works here, all written between 1912 and 1921, break no significant ground. As you listen to the opening of the heartfelt, one-movement Sonata, in fact, you might think you've stumbled into Rachmaninov's C minor Prelude, Op 23 No 7. But conservative as it is, the writing is texturally sophisticated, harmonically imaginative and melodically succulent - not as ingenious as Medtner's but certainly on a level with that of his increasingly familiar compatriot Sergei Bortkiewicz.

These dense and highly emotional works are neatly played off against five gentler miniatures, presented with charismatic restraint. The presence of Silvestrov is perhaps to be expected - he's become a standard-bearer for Ukrainian music these days. And while on paper the presence of two B minor sonatas by Scarlatti may seem incongruous, in practice only those allergic to Romantic interpretations of Baroque music will be disconcerted, since they're played with such disarming sensibility (seductive rubato, exquisitely shaded timbres) that they fit seamlessly. A major release.

-- Gramophone Read less