United Kingdom Dowland, Bach, Beethoven: Yunchan Lim (piano), Wigmore Hall, London, 18.1.2023. (MBr)
John Dowland – Pavana Lachrymae (1590s, arr. William Byrd)
J.S Bach – 15 Sinfonias, BWV 787 – 801 (c.1720 rev. 1723)
Beethoven – 7 Bagatelles, Op.33 (1801-2); 15 Variations and a Fugue on an Original Theme in E flat (‘Eroica Variations’), Op.35 (1802)
There might be, I feel, a fickleness to profitable piano competitions. Some pianists obtain the aspirations of their win and have a protracted, even nice profession; others, for every kind of causes, don’t. The eighteen-year-old South Korean pianist Yunchan Lim, who received the Van Cliburn Competition final yr summer season, may go both method – however the second route can be one fully of his personal selection based mostly very a lot on his personal convictions. He is uncommon, and maybe the alternative of what one expects. His humbleness and humanity are putting though my feeling is that for Yunchan Lim the present of music is to play it for individuals who are much less privileged to listen to it – and that was not significantly his viewers in London. But there’s one other, extra advanced, facet to him: the wild and romantic Heathcliff determine who will create hazard on the keyboard; a few of this recital felt like Lim was re-composing the place he thought the music wanted it so vivid and startlingly contemporary is his creativeness.
We did get to listen to Lim at his fairly outstanding finest; little or no right here was uninspired, and a few of it touched real greatness. Ironically, he doesn’t resemble the pianist of the competitors he received, Van Cliburn. I’m extra inclined to check him with the winner of the Queen Elisabeth Competition in 1964 – Evgeny Mogilevsky, whose worldwide profession was considerably hindered by Soviet refusal to grant him permission to play within the west. Mogilevsky received when he, too, was eighteen – taking part in the identical Rachmaninoff concerto – however what each he and Lim share is a wonderful keyboard method which is fully centred across the potentialities of the instrument’s sound. Lim’s recital was that very uncommon factor – a real journey by what Bach and Beethoven can sound like in the event you really apply color to it. Mogilevsky turned unwatchable in his later years (Lim could be very removed from that) however his arms all the time remained fascinating – the way in which they might float over keys, how they may obtain the nice and cozy tone and management, that resonant bass, all of it remained a relentless. His taking part in was astonishingly elegant, though his recordings by no means sounded simply meticulous.
The first half of Lim’s programme didn’t maybe spotlight all of those elements – however then neither the Dowland nor Bach had been written for the piano. Pavana Lachrymae started life as a piece for lute however as organized by William Byrd it’s a tenebrous and ruminative piece that Lim introduced deep repose to. It would have been straightforward to have simply made it monochromatic, easy, however the heat of tone right here was beautiful and golden.
Bach’s Sinfonias – right here the Third-Part Inventions – had been performed in Lim’s personal association of them. In reality, given the form of panorama that he had created all through his efficiency there was some musical sense in ending with the grandest of the set – the F minor – somewhat than the numbered B minor, despite the fact that his tempi for the previous had been exceptionally gradual – albeit with ravishing depth. There had been many great moments in these performances – the competing voices within the E minor (No.6) that somewhat than clashing had a logical symmetry to them; the wealthy counterpoint within the E Flat (No.5) – which started with a monumental opening octave on the left hand. Although Lim’s taking part in of Bach tends to be fairly tight in sooner passages – though he by no means over-pedals – the room between the silence and the power to play with tone and color is clearly already there. He has a notion of color and this erases any sense of simplicity within the scale of his Bach: even sooner passages sounded impressively large.
The second half of this recital was dedicated to Beethoven and in a way Lim returned to the platform in a somewhat totally different way of thinking. Although the Bagatelles and the Eroica Variations come from roughly the identical time (1801/2), they’re markedly totally different works. If the Dowland and Bach had known as for some restraint, then this explicit model of Beethoven was ferocious, wild, untamed.
Lim is nothing if he’s not into taking part in accents in music – it was a notable characteristic of his Rachmaninoff Third. The E flat Bagatelle was blistering within the sforzando accents; they got here like shell hearth. Likewise, the C main with its repeating left-hand scale and devilish arpeggios was delivered with accuracy and assurance. Lim is, in some ways, a visible artist – within the Bagatelles his hand jumps and finger leaps had been acrobatic however terribly elegant; he’s his personal marionette, all the pieces painstakingly designed to elicit essentially the most excellent sound, essentially the most excellent color. The Bagatelle in A, for instance, was simply fabulous – the dexterity and muscle management in his left-hand fifth finger was fairly excellent; I’ve not often heard left-hand bass triplets given with such depth and richness, however which but retain their sonority too. Again, that capability to under-pedal meant his octaves in the correct hand by no means over-produced so we obtained an ideal sound that ended exactly on the notice and by no means elided past it. There was volatility and volcanic energy within the final Bagatelle, too. Left-hand staccatos like lava and seizing the music by the throat when he wanted to made for a fiery finish.
Beethoven’s Eroica Variations in all probability has extra to do with Prometheus however no matter its origins it’s each a piece of symphonic proportions and pianistic virtuosity. Yunchan Lim clearly knew the place he was going to take us when he opened these variations on that large fortissimo tonic chord – right here we had Lim launching right into a torrential storm of these eight notes. I’m not positive one understands any efficiency of the Eroica Variations till one has heard how a pianist performs the Basso del Tema – and right here Lim was all about that majestic sonority which might emerge later within the thunder of the fugue and the triumph of these opening chords when they’re bolstered.
If one begins on the finish of Lim’s efficiency one will get an concept of simply how large this was. He does, I feel, have an actual tendency to play with tempo – however that’s not all the time apparent (he’s, in that sense, very not like a Pogorelich or Afanassiev). In the Bach Inventions he may both be quick or gradual – not often did he appear to be on the mark. These Eroica Variations, nevertheless, had been very a lot weighted in direction of the tip – particularly XIV and XV. He introduced appreciable depth to the chromatic passages in XIV, the load of the taking part in permitting him to set the emotional core of the music to the proper temperature. His tendency to iron out the textures of Beethovenian ornament – as he does in Bach – added a level of rawness right here (the Tema within the XIV variation was significantly uncommon). In the fugue itself we obtained somewhat extra sustained pedalling from Lim – fantastically managed.
Technically, the taking part in was superlative. His left hand is so highly effective that bass chords had been by no means occluded; they rang with superb, bell-like richness. In his proper hand, you bought a sense of outstanding pressure when he performed triplets, regardless of how animated they turned. In one passage, the place he performed thirty second half notes the rhythm was maintained with surgical precision. Repeated octave B-flats, or a number of A-flat octaves for the left hand – once more on the return of the Tema – had been mountainous. At fortissimo his sound was huge, however by no means uncontrolled.
But the method was only a means for Lim to realize a efficiency of nice musical perception. This was an Eroica Variations that melded pressure with nice perception. Lim used Beethoven’s rating to not make the purpose of becoming a member of notes with notes, however of resolving conflicts inside it. If octaves jumped from one to the subsequent, or notes had been hammered like nails onto the keyboard there was a narrational purpose for it. In a chunk that generally appears dry, Lim created a really residing efficiency of it, albeit usually symphonic in scale.
He provided two encores. The first, Bach’s Jesu, Joy, within the transcription by Myra Hess, was fantastically finished – albeit fully not like something Hess may need performed. The second, Liszt’s Liebesträum No.3 was merely astounding. Quite the place Lim pulled this one from was past me – the sheer fantastic thing about it, the ravishing taking part in, the one-off craftsmanship, the unimaginable rubato was unforgettable. It reconfirmed that Lim, for my part, may turn out to be the best Liszt participant of the age.
This was an excellent recital, and I feel Yunchan Lim is a pianist with a distinction. I don’t significantly see in him the form of normal virtuoso pianist we’ve too a lot of at present; somewhat, he’s a thinker, an individualist, a thinker of the keyboard. I generally take heed to his taking part in and I hear the good Japanese pianist Takahiro Sonoda, and even Edwin Fischer. He has been properly grounded and mentored by the excellent Korean pianist Minsoo Sohn – himself a beautiful Bach and Beethoven participant. The easiest that might occur to Yunchan Lim is that he follows and listens to his personal convictions; the worst is that he doesn’t.
Marc Bridle
This recital might be heard on YouTube or the Wigmore Hall (click on right here) livestream channel for 90 days.