Yunchan Lim review – young pianist's Bach dazzles and intrigues

The Guardian

08-04-2025

JS Bach's Goldberg Variations is a work many pianists put on the back burner for years, waiting until they feel their interpretation has matured before showing it to the world. Not so for Yunchan Lim, who turned 21 a couple of weeks ago in between giving concerts of the Goldbergs in the US. Maturity and youth collided intriguingly in this hot-ticket performance, his first of the work in the UK.
He gave us the theme simply, if also relatively weightily, emphasising a few moments of left-hand countermelody, before springing into a first variation full of zingy trills. By Variation 5, the first real allegro, he was dazzling us, the notes rattling past but with all the internal phrasing crystal clear and none of the threads tangled. That early way of spotlighting fleeting left-hand phrases became an ongoing feature – as did a degree of playful licence, with some of the repeats played up or down an octave, sounding either music-box-like or grumbly.
It was a kaleidoscope, each variation taking a new colour and pattern formed from the possibilities of those that had gone before. It felt simultaneously spontaneous and impeccably thought through. But was he throwing a little too much at it? Especially in the later variations he seemed to be reminding us that he also loves playing Chopin and Rachmaninov; at times it felt as if he were signposting profundity. Lim certainly seems open to this work's myriad possibilities; perhaps he will come to let the music own its subtleties a little more. He was due back for a second performance 16 hours after this one finished – it would be fascinating to know how alike they were.
It didn't really need an opener, or an encore, but we got both. First came Round and Velvety-Smooth Blend by the teenage Korean composer Hanurij Lee, in which episodes of frenetic activity punctuated passages of mesmerising stillness, beautifully achieved. And, after all that Bach, it was Liszt's Petrarch Sonnet 104 that Lim sent us out with. Frustratingly, the melody didn't always sing to the very end of each phrase, but he had so much to say that it was riveting nonetheless.