Yunchan Lim, piano. Mozart: Piano Sonata in C K279; Piano Sonata in D K284; Fantasia in D minor K397; Piano Sonata in F K332; Piano Sonata in A minor K310.
This is only the second time I have heard Yunchan Lim play live – the first being a Prom not long after lockdown – maybe 2023, his playing impressing me greatly with its poeticism and delicacy, but somewhat subverted on that occasion by a conductor whose approach was a lot more propulsive and energetic. Since then, his reputation has gone orbital……He is playing a whole set of Mozart sonatas this season at Wigmore Hall, roughly in chronologically-ordered groupings, and I am able to get to this one and the December recital.
He’s not seemingly a stage animal – he rushes on stage, head bowed, and with scarcely a pause charges into the work he’s playing; at the end of the piece there are curt bows and a quick exit (though he did play an encore – I think the finale of one of the two early sonatas in the programme). He’s also clearly a hummer, in the Glenn Gould tradition, never distracting and not in some of the magical slow quiet moments, but there most of the time nonetheless.
I am probably not best placed to comment on the details of his playing – I am not a pianist, and also my recording of the complete sonatas is on a forte-piano, a very different sound indeed to the clangourous Wigmore Hall instrument, especially in the hall’s very lively acoustic. I will have a go, though, at putting down my reactions. That his technical skills are extraordinary goes without saying – remarkable clarity and crispness on some of the runs, for instance. He clearly favours a wide dynamic range, from the thunderous to the soft whisperings of some of the slow movements. His playing in the slow movements of the sonatas and in the Fantasia was wonderfully gentle and, yes, that word ‘poetic’ again – introspective too – with great sensitivity of phrasing, and a feeling of inwardness. In general there’s a lot of pedal used, I think – though others may contradict – and the sound is ‘big’. Sometimes – I heard someone say this walking out of the hall – he was ‘playing to catch up with the notes’ – the fast movements were sometimes extremely fast – accurate but sounding a bit hurried. I thought this was extraordinarily good playing, and quite possibly Mozart would have loved it – the concert grand is in any case very far removed from the instrument he himself would have been playing. Overall, it was a very ‘romantic’ sound and style, and highly imaginative – at times a piece like the Fantasia sounded more like Chopin. If there was anything missing, I would say it was perhaps the ‘wit’ and ‘poise’ you might associate with someone like Brendel, a sense of classical balance, in music that admittedly teeters on the edge of what the 18th century thought music could express, even in these relatively early works. Perhaps also at times, in some of the more dance-like music, more of a lilt, a sense of delight, was needed. But this is all a matter of taste really, and above all, Yunchan Lim clearly has a strong vision of how he wants this music to sound. This was a wonderfully well-played concert, exploring works I don’t know very well, and with this pianist as an assured and sensitive guide.
Of the works themselves I was amazed by the fertility and invention of the 2nd sonata in the programme – K284, written in Munich when Mozart was 18/19 – in particular the extended finale with a theme and 12 variations, which are gorgeous, particularly the 11th one. The overall highlights for me were the Fantasia and the last sonata played, K310. I hadn’t realised that this latter work was written around the time Mozart’s mother died in Paris, when Mozart was 21 . The slow movement is almost frightening in its sadness, and very well-suited to Lim’s thoughtful introspective playing. He made it so much more a work of poetry than my forte-piano recording – the storm of sudden emotion two thirds of the movement was quite alarming in its intensity. The third movement of this sonata was driven forward with energy and passion. The Fantasia, with its melancholy main theme, and sudden flourishes and byways, its overall sense of something dark and tragic, was again ideally suited to this pianist’s talents.
A really worthwhile evening……………..
