The announcement that 18-year-old Yunchan Lim planned to devote his entire Van Cliburn International Competition semi-final recital to all twelve Liszt Transcendental Etudes created a buzz throughout the international piano community. Could this youngest of the 2022 contenders bring off such an audacious test of technical wherewithal, musicianship, and stamina? As it happened, Lim made it to the semi-finals, and delivered the goods big time. He went on to win the Gold Medal, following a performance of the Rachmaninov Third concerto that was the talk of the town.
Lim’s effortless virtuosity and total immersion into Liszt’s idiom indeed define transcendental. His shapely and perfectly proportioned Preludio sets the stage for numerous felicities to come, such as the pianist’s playful command of the Second Etude’s unwieldy leaps and broken double notes. When hearing Paysage live, I initially thought Lim’s rubato to be a bit contrived, but now the tempo manipulations seem all of a piece. His suave and sweeping dispatch of Mazeppa’s thorny textures conveys minimum bluster and maximum nobility.
For all of the awesome speed and offhanded lightness in Feux follet’s double notes, Lim hardly neglects the left hand in a performance to place alongside those of Sviatoslav Richter and Minoru Nojima. The power of Vision’s arpeggios is akin to nondestructive tidal waves, while Lim’s pliable wrist action in Wild Jagd’s interlocking octaves make George Cziffra sound arthritic by comparison.
Most young pianists ramble through Ricordanza, but Lim’s long-lined phrasing has direction aplenty, with no dead spots. The same goes for Harmonies du soir. No. 10’s cascading runs and agitato tunes are impeccably aligned, while the pianist’s variety of voicings and tonal shadings give depth and character to Chasse-neige’s potentially clattery tremolos.
A little audience rustle is a small price to pay for what must be the best live integral performance of the Transcendental Etudes ever preserved in sound. Let’s hope that Lim will sustain this level of artistic and pianistic brilliance over the course a long and fulfilling career.
