For those unaware, praised as “technically flawless and impeccably musical” (International Piano), Illia Ovcharenko is one of the world’s most celebrated young pianists.

He is the 2022 Honens Prize Laureate, embodying Honens’ ideal of The Complete Artist through his technical mastery, perseverance, and intellectual and emotional understanding of music.

Besides winning at the Honens International Piano Competition, one of the world’s most prestigious events of its kind, Ovcharenko has received prizes at more than 20 competitions throughout the world.

For Illia, the piano is a real friend, sometimes filling him with joy, sometimes serving as a painkiller. The piano reveals who he is, to himself and to an audience.

He thrives on live performance, feeling as if two souls — his and the composer’s — are united together on stage. He’s most at home playing romantic repertoire. His brand new album is entitled Manu Sinistra (Concertos for the Left Hand) and is out now via Pentatone Music.

Sergei Bortkiewicz (1877-1952)
Piano Concerto No. 2. Op, 28
1. I. Allegro dramatico
2. II. Andante cantabile
3. III. Allegro vivo

Maurice Ravel (1875-1937)
Piano Concerto for the Left Hand, M.82
4. I. Lento
5. II. Allegro
6. III. Tempo I

Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953)
Piano Concerto No. 4, Op. 53
7. I. Vivace
8. II. Andante
9. III. Moderato
10. IV. Vivace

Illia opens his new recording on Bortkiewicz’s piano Concerto No. 2. Op, 28: and first we get the sweepingly epic Allegro dramatico, the sweetly demure Andante cantabile, the piece ending on the playfully robust Allegro vivo.

Up next is Ravel’s Piano Concerto for the Left Hand, M. 82: which opens on the sterner fare of Lento, then we get the pomp-full, confident and yet intoxicatingly skittish Allegro, culminating on the flourishingly emphatic Tempo I.

The new set rounds out on Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 4, Op. 53: which begins on the aboundingly joyful nature within Vivace, before we are gifted the more decadently alluring Andante, the robust, yet demure when called upon Moderato, the piece rounding out on the flirtatiously affectional Vivace.

“I’m so happy when people hear me play and say I brought something new to their life or let them forget about their current troubles,” he says. “Playing the piano is usually a much better way of communicating since there is something intimate involved in this process.”

Official Purchase Links

www.illiaovcharenko.com

Illia Ovcharenko @ Instagram