The latest piano genius is called Yunchan Lim | Culture

Old recordings of legendary pianists have changed the life of young South Korean Yunchan Lim (Siheung, 20 years old). He confessed this to Jeremy Nicholas last May on the cover of the magazine Gramophone: “I started listening to the big names when I was 13. My teacher recommended Ignaz Friedman (an exceptional Polish virtuoso who died in 1948). And when I was coming home from school, I was electrified. Shocked. I stood in the street in awe of the freedom of his playing and almost felt remorse for my playing.”

That remorse has disappeared, judging by the impressive recital that Lim played last Saturday, August 3, at the Castell de Peralada Festival. He began it with tributes to two of his past heroes: Alfred Cortot and Vladimir Horowitz. Song without words op. 19 no. 1by Mendelssohn, it was easy to recognize the expressiveness and lyrical beauty of the legendary French pianist in his 1937 recording. And the same was true of the expansive, pearly tone of the legendary phoenix of the Ukrainian natural keyboard, in the on. 85 no. 4by the same composer, which was recorded in 1946.

But Lim savours, refines and even perfects both models. mendelssonianosIt was clear, in the on. 19 no. 1with its exquisite way of making the cantilena float along driven by semiquaver arpeggios. And, in the on. 85 no. 4which is known by the nickname of Elegyexpanded the same poetic pattern, masterfully coloring each phrase and letting the air penetrate between the notes.

There was no time to recover from the shock, as the piano cycle The Seasons op. 37aTchaikovsky’s 12 pieces continued without pause. Published monthly in a Russian music sheet magazine between 1875 and 1876, the composer evokes the months of the year. Lim seems to start from another phonographic model in this prodigious interpretation of the work. In this case, he turns to Konstantin Igumnov, a disciple of Tchaikovsky’s main pupil and a classmate of Rachmaninoff, whose late recording, from 1947, continues to captivate with its ability to connect the whole, maintain the Russian flavour and elevate each piece individually.

In Peralada, January The piece began slowly but with the same lyrical flexibility towards the central section. The title evokes a rest by a fireplace and the young pianist threw into the air each of the garlands of arpeggios (indicated very light in the score) like small flames. In February marked the carnivalesque contrast and, in Marchhe held his breath at each ornate song of the lark. He was playful with the bells, Apriland made us contemplate the stars, in mayowith admirable phrasing and articulation. The famous and beautiful barcarolle, by Juneproduced chills. And the pieces of julio, August y September They functioned as a rural triptych full of contrasts and color.

Lim raised the autumn song, Octobercreating one of the unforgettable moments of the night. A moving and melancholic dialogue that left the audience breathless. Everything continued with colorful sleigh bells in the popular troikaof Novemberalong with the waltz, of Decemberpropelled with astonishing flexibility. At the end of the first part, a round of applause was heard from the audience that filled the Iglesia del Carmen in the Girona town. And, from the keyboard, a boy with humble gestures stood up, apparently surprised by the reactions.

It was not Lim’s first performance in Spain, as he starred in a recital at the Korean Cultural Center, when he was 15 years old, at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando. But it was his first appearance in our country after becoming very popular, in 2022, as the youngest winner of the Van Cliburn competition. And playing in the final an impressive and moving version of Piano Concerto No. 3by Rachmaninov, which has garnered more than 15 million views on YouTube. In recent months, his recording debut, on Decca, with an admirable interpretation of Chopin’s op. 10 and op. 25 studies, or his recent first in the BBC Promshave made him one of the most interesting virtuosos of the moment.

Despite his surprising maturity and musicality, Lim is a 20-year-old pianist who is forging his personality. This latter aspect emerged in the second part of his recital in Peralada. With a completely personal version of Pictures from an exhibitionMussorgsky’s piano cycle written between June and July 1874 as a posthumous tribute to his friend, the architect, sculptor and painter Viktor Hartmann. Lim returns to the scene from a recording that fascinates him, such as the one recorded live by Horowitz in 1948 at Carnegie Hall. A performance in which the pianist virtuosically rewrites the original composition inspired by Maurice Ravel’s famous orchestration, which he called a “pianostation”.

In reality, Lim only uses a small part of Horowitz’s interventions. And he tries to adapt his vision of the work as imposing tour de force full of tension, brilliance and musicality to the limitations of Mussorgsky’s piano writing. pianostation Horowitz uses it to add non-existent harmonies, to reinforce various passages with octaves or to construct various transitions. In fact, in his interpretation of the work, new symphonic contrasts and chamber fluctuations emerge, practically without deviating from what is written in the score. The changes intensify from No. 6 onwards, Samuel Goldenberg y Schmuylewhich concludes with a beat of his own to launch number 7, the market of Limoges. Lim suppresses, like Horowitz, the last promenade and uses more touches of his adaptation in the final numbers of the work.

The climax of his performance came in No. 9, the hut on chicken legs, where he dazzled with his evocation of the phantasmagoria of Russian tales with torrential sounds and even with the personal addition, on two occasions, of an outstanding glissando with both hands. And in the final number, The Great Gate of kyivfound an ideal balance to close the work with all the intensity but without falling into excesses.

He said goodbye to the audience, who cheered his performance, emphasizing his exquisite musicality in a single encore. It was another tribute to a legendary pianist: the Sicilian from the flute sonata no. 2 BWV 1031by Bach, in a beautiful transcription by Wilhelm Kempff.