International Piano has praised Illia Ovcharenko’s debut concerto recording, Manu Sinistra, with critic Claire Jackson writing that if the marketing is a little heavy-handed, the playing is flawless.
The review highlights Ovcharenko’s account of Ravel’s Piano Concerto in D minor for the Left Hand, noting how he brings out its lower-octave “smoking-jacket” tones with the panache one expects of a Honens laureate. Jackson also praises his handling of Prokofiev’s dissonance as convincing enough to win over even Paul Wittgenstein, the concerto’s original, reluctant dedicatee. The disc is completed by Bortkiewicz’s Second Concerto, described as a less familiar but enjoyable addition to the left-hand repertoire.
Manu Sinistra is out now on PENTATONE.
