Ivan Ilic, Fugitive Visions
Piano Masterworks by Debussy, Haydn and Liszt
www.IvanCDG.com

The Paris based American pianist Ivan Ilic has only made half a dozen recordings to date but they are each examples of a pianist with a formidable technical and cerebral approach to a range of keyboard works.

His latest CD, Fugitive Visions, has been independently produced with the assistance of the Mairie de Paris (Paris City Council), which appears to be a rare honour and an indication of the high regard he is held in by the French music establishment.

This selection of piano works on this recording is something of a small treatise on keyboard music spanning a couple of hundred years. As well as the Debussy, Haydn and Liszt on the CD, the Liszt work is based on a theme by Bach.

That Ilic has combined the four composers is an indication of the intelligent approach he has to playing. He manages to see linkages between the disparate composers and just as Liszt has adapted the work of Bach so too we can see how the others adapted work of earlier composers and how they interrelate.

In the Liszt work, Variations on a theme of Bach – Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen, the well structured musical line of Bach with its architectural clarity is overlaid with embellishments giving it an ornate form.

Ilic reinforces this with a chiaroscuro style of plating accentuating the darker moments as well as the passages of brilliant revelation. In his hands the work becomes an electrifying work full of drama and pathos.

His technique makes us aware of not just each note but how each note and sequence flows into the other.

With the Debussy works he achieves an impressionist style which emphasises the notions of light, colour and texture. The dream-like tone poems conjure up haiku-like images and settings.

In Des Pas sur le Neige, composer and pianist capture the silence and the stillness of the snowy landscape, while in Feux d’artifice the stylish intricate passages provide images of the colours and patterns of the fireworks rather than the noisy spectacle.

Ilic’s account of Haydn's Sonata in F major is full of beautifully realised, elegant phrasing. His assured playing reveals the logical progressions of the music as well as the clever and witty interventions.

With all these works one is conscious of Ilic managing to express the desires of the composer but also .to find something new in the work which expresses something of the pianist finding another level of meaning and emotion.