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Yunchan Lim's Goldberg Variations · The Piano Maven with Jed Distler

• 0:07
  This is Jed Disler, and welcome to The Piano
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  Maven, your friendly podcast guide to piano recordings.
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  I was happy to see your feedback about my episode
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  from a few days ago on the topic of Olivier Messiaen's
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  piano cycle, Vingt Regards sur l 'Enfant Jésus.
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  And I will be getting around to discussing further
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  recordings of this piece very soon. However,
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  there is a release that is dropping tomorrow,
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  Friday, February 6th, that you should know about.
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  And it's been among the more highly anticipated
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  new releases. It's appearing in... every possible
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  format, compact disc, digital files, on vinyl,
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  and through streaming services, of course. This
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  is a new recording of J .S. Bach's Goldberg Variations
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  with the pianist Yunchan Lim. It comes from his
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  live Carnegie Hall performance of April 25, 2025.
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  I'm sure that some of you have seen the video
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  transmission of this concert in some form or
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  another. And I suspect there's been a little
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  bit of post -production editing in producing
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  this audio version. Not that it really matters.
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  But given all of the attention and acclaim and
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  criticism that Yunshan Lim has amassed since
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  he came to worldwide attention back in 2022 when
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  he won the Van Cliburn competition, it stands
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  to reason that his Goldberg Variations performances
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  both in New York and all over the world on tour,
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  have been coming in for close critical scrutiny,
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  both positive as well as negative. And I'm sure
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  that's going to be the case for this recording,
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  which I did review for Gramophone magazine. I
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  think the review is going to be published in
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  the March edition, if I understand correctly.
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  Right off the bat, I will say that I do like
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  Yoon Chan Lim's Goldberg Variations very much.
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  I think that he's genuinely involved with the
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  music, and he projects his love and his affinity
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  for the work with the utmost and virtuoso sheen,
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  which... is only to be expected from someone
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  who can toss off the Liszt Transcendental Etudes
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  and the Chopin Etudes and the Rachmaninoff Third
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  Concerto like they're all Hanon exercises. But
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  let's explore what happens in this Goldberg Variations
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  performance. For the record, all puns intended,
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  Yunchan Lim takes all of the repeats except for
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  that in the aria da capo. plays the opening aria
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  very eloquently with subtle phrasing and subtle
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  dynamic gradations. And his ornaments on Variation
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  No. 1's repeats are crisp and clean, but they
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  don't strive for effect. It sounds very, very
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  natural. His conversational kind of voicing of
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  the canon at the unison, which is Variation 3,
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  really, really impressed me. He brings out some
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  truly stunning contrapuntal interplay in Variation
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  No. 5, which is one of the really perilous cross
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  -handed variations, and your hands can easily
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  get tangled up, but he just makes the music sound
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  so clear, and he brings out voices that you never
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  hear in other performances. But I do have to
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  say that his very optimistic initial tempo inevitably
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  relaxes as the music progresses. And this is
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  a tendency with most pianists, except for Glenn
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  Gould and for Murray Pariah. But most pianists
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  tend to slow down when they start this variation
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  at a really optimistic clip. And actually, this
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  really happens in the 17th variation, which is
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  a very challenging cross -handed exercise. And
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  in number 17, Yoon Chan Lim really does slow
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  down his basic tempo over time. I found the pianist's
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  staccato articulation in variation 6, the canon
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  at the second, to be a little arch and maybe
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  mannered. But Variation 7 has a nice and easy
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  lilt to it. And you will notice how he plays
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  the repeats up the octave. And we're going to
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  see more octave displacements later on in the
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  performance. You know, taking the repeats up
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  or down the octave was something that became
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  popular after... Andras Schiff did this in his
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  1982 Decca recording, and other pianists did
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  that as well. You hear that in the Maria Tipo
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  1985 recording, and also the first Konstantin
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  Lifshitz recording. You have a lot of octave
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  transpositions. Of course, the most extreme octave
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  transposition example is the live Vladimir Feltzman
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  recording. But I'm digressing. Back to Yunchan
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  Lim. For some reason, in Variation 10, the Fugetta,
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  he doesn't ornament the first note. Usually you
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  hear... And he just goes... I don't know whether
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  that was intentional or that was an error. I
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  mean, it's no big deal, but I'm kind of curious.
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  At first, I thought that in this variation, that
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  the pianist was stretching out the first beat
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  in measure 25, for those of you who were following
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  the score. I thought that stretching out that
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  first beat was a hesitation of the moment. But
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  then on the repeat, the pianist does it again,
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  and... the effect is a little bit jarring. It
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  kind of throws the rhythmic momentum off kilter
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  a little bit. On the other hand, Yunchan Lim
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  disentangles variation number 11's close -lying
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  counterpoint really, really well. In the lyrical
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  number 13, the pianist gets involved with these
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  little dynamic curly cues and attention -getting
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  détaché articulations. And to my ears, these
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  gestures draw more attention to the pianist than
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  to the music. And in this case, I actually prefer
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  Vikinger Olofsson's more direct interpretation.
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  But Yoon Chan Lim's very free and liberal way
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  with the three minor key variations does show
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  more proportion and inner logic on the pianist's
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  part, and I find them very convincing and very
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  expressive and very beautiful. It seems that
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  once the French overture, variation number 16,
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  that launches the second part of the work, kicks
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  in, that we hear the pianist starting to let
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  go. go more. And note that he takes variations
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  repeats down the octave, and he takes variation
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  19s repeats up the octave. But here, these transpositions
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  don't sound so gimmicky as they did in number
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  seven. I don't know why. I really can't explain
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  that. He plays the final five variations full
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  out and generates a natural yet inevitable momentum.
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  And then he plays the ora da capo very softly
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  with real fragility. Yet even the quietest notes
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  project across the footlights. I have to say
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  that I don't hear the same kind of stylistic
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  consistency and... architectural unity and consistent
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  expressive discretion that you find in my favorite
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  recent piano recordings of the Goldbergs, meaning
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  those from the past. quarter century, and I'm
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  talking about Marie Pariah, the Andras Schiff
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  remake from 2001 for the ECM label, and also
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  Angela Hewitt's remake for Hyperion, which I
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  prefer to her first one, actually. And there
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  have been wonderful recent piano versions from
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  Alexandra Papastafanu, from Clara Wirtz, and
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  there's a really underrated and a definitely
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  overlooked Goldberg variations from the pianist
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  Laurie Sims. You really have to check that one
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  out. However, when it comes to Yoon Chan Lim
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  and the Goldberg variations, I hear a sincerity
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  and a genuinely searching quality from his interpretation,
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  along with his superb powers of communication,
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  and a performance that I think is definitely
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  worth hearing. This is Jed Disler, and you've
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  been listening to The Piano Maven, your friendly
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  podcast guide to piano recordings. I have to
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  take off next week because I'm judging a piano
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  competition in Santa Monica. So I'm going to
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  post a few reruns and I hope you don't mind.
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  But maybe if you did not hear these episodes
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  last year, you will enjoy them this time. And
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  then I will be back toward the end of the month
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  with some fresh new episodes. In the meantime,
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  take good care and I look forward to... being
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  with you very soon.