Pianist Magazine has given a four-star review to Illia Ovcharenko’s Manu Sinistra, with critic Peter Quantrill writing that Ovcharenko imparts a spiky, balletic sense of identity to Prokofiev’s Fourth Concerto, aided by Oksana Lyniv’s dynamic profiling of the accompaniment.
The review singles out Bortkiewicz’s concerto as the disc’s real discovery, describing its grand Wagnerian opening before it seques seamlessly into rolling waves of Rach-lite piano figuration. Quantrill notes that Bortkiewicz was himself no mean pianist, and that the solo part is full of sleights of hand that will have listeners wondering if it really involves only five fingers, with particular praise for the opulent, fifteen-minute slow movement.
The review is more measured on the Ravel, calling it a touch lugubrious where crisper, more Francophone textures would be welcome, though it notes the piece still knits the album together.
Manu Sinistra is out now on PENTATONE.
