  Go to LAN286 - Ilona Timchenko, piano
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Gramophone, March 2009
'Ilona Timchenko is a young Russian pianist and winner of the Abstract Securities Landor Competition. But make no mistake; there is nother abstract about performances characterised by immense musical and technical resource. Cradling Clara Schumann's three Preludes and Fuges between two outsize challenges, she links three composers closely entwined both personally and professionally.
More importantly, her warmth in Clara's Mendelssohnian B flat Prelude and Fugue, where a much-neglected composer doffs her hat to academe, is complemented by an astonishing sense of Robert's ominously schizophrenic fantasy in his Kreisleriana. Clara herself feared for her husband with his sudden dive into the darkest regions of Romantic poetry (Intermezzo 2 from section 2) and it is here that Timchenko, with her superb sense of the outgoing and interior sides of Schumann's teeming imagination, reveals herself in total accord with such richness and complexity. Her stealthy view of the final gnomic march, alive with eerie voicing and cross-accentuation, has rarely been equalled; again it is her formidable command and poetic commitment that make such a musical rather than merely athletic experience of Brahms's Paganini Variations. Romantically free, even in the theme, she takes nothing on face value. Try Vars 11 and 14 (Book 2) for instances of her all-Russian mastery, or Var 3 from the same book for a dancing lightness and vivacity and you can only marvel at such sheer quality. Potton Hall's sound is rich and full, if a trifle bass-heavy, but this is among the most commanding and musically fascinating of all new and recent piano issues.'
Bryce Morrison International Record Review, January 2009
'Joint winner of the Abstract Securities Landor Competition 2007, Ilona Timchenko starts a long-term recording contract with Landor Records with this most auspicious release. Her performances of Schumann's Kreisleriana and Brahms's Paganini Variations bear comparison with the finest versions available; she includes three rarely heard gems in the form of Clara Schumann's Preludes and Fugues, Op.16, Timchenko puts the music first and overt display is never a priority even in a programme as demanding as this.
Kreisleriana emerges as a more intimate and introspective work in her hands than it does, for example, in those of Pollini in his much acclaimed account of 2002 on DG. She is more emotionally reserved, with tempos generally slower and an overall reading which is broader and more expansive, partly a result of observing all the repeats (which Pollini does not). However, there is nothing remotely tame about Timchenko' performance, and she throws herself into the more frenzied and frenetic passage with abandon. As Schumann wrote, 'there's a very wild ove in a few movements', and the opening movement is as feverish as any while displaying stunning pedal control, contrasting the outer episodes with light and almost secco passagework in the central section. Only in the closing movement is she markedly at odds with all of the other versions on my shelves, but I find her slower tempo wholly convincing: the marking of 'Schnell und spielend' is still observed, and the manner in which the music recedes into the distance is wonderfully effective.
There is nothing dry or academic about Clara Schumann's Op.16, which uses the entire compass of the keyboard and rich romantic harmonies in the same way as Mendelssohn's exercises in the same genre. The second of the Preludes, in B flat major, has a real sense of yearning, full blooded and full textured, and in the accompanying Fugue careful use of the sustaining pedal maintains the voice-leading and harmonies over vast registers. One might easily imagine these as transcriptions of organ works rather than being originally intended for the piano. Certainly Schumann could not have been more correct in remarking of his wife, one of the great pianists of the nineteenth century and a mother of seven children, 'I am often disturbed to think how many profound ideas are lost because she does not have time to work them out'. These are wonderful pieces and I cannot envisage them being performed with greater distinction.
In Brahms's Paganini Variations Timchenko is no less accomplished. It does not for me displace the finest new account that I've heard in recent years, that of another young prize-winner, Alexander Kobrin, winner of the 2005 Van Cliburn Competition. His competition performances form a staggering recital (it included Rachmaninov's Études-tableaux, Op.33). His Paganini Variations display a formidable technique, with stunning accuracy together with all the palpable excitement of a live concert. Nevertheless, Timchenko's technique is of similar quality, evident in clearly enunciated cross-rhythms, crisp octave passagework and exquisite voicing of inner parts (try Variation 11 of Book 1). As displayed throughout this programme, the tone is beautifully well rounded and the pedal is never over-used: here is the ideal combination of technical prowess allied with a thoughtful and searching musical mind.
This is one of the most promising recording débuts that I have heard and I long to hear more from her. The recording quality is first-rate, as are Jeremy Hayes's notes.'
Nicholas Salwey Sunday Times, January 2009
'Ilona Timchenko is the latest artist to benefit from Landor's policy of promoting pianistic talent. Where many Russions plump for power at the expense of beauty, Timchenko prefers a subtle range of colours, even when the music is dense and loud, as it sometimes is in Schumann's Kreisleriana. This work is given a beautifully shaped, unhurried reading. Since Kreisleriana was written for Clara Schumann, it was an excellent idea to pair this work with her own Op 16. Timchenko's playing here has great clarity, while in the Paganini Variations, she discharges music of terrorising technical difficulty with brilliance.'
Stephen Pettitt
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