Latest / The Piano Maven with Jed Distler / Bonus Episode - Bruce Liu & Yunchan Lim play Tchaikovsky's The Seasons

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Bonus Episode - Bruce Liu & Yunchan Lim play Tchaikovsky's The Seasons · The Piano Maven with Jed Distler

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  you 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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  This is a bonus episode. Usually we have episodes
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  twice a week, but I'm sneaking this one in between
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  our usual Monday and Thursday episodes because
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  I just thought it would be a fun thing to do.
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  And because I... I am in Warsaw now, and I happen
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  to have seen Bruce Liu play the Saint -Saëns
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  Fifth Concerto for the opening concert. I thought
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  it might be fun to talk about his recent recording
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  of Tchaikovsky's Seasons and compare it alongside
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  an even newer recording that just came out by
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  Yuchan Lim. But before I talk about... the seasons
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  and these recordings, I'd like you to consider
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  subscribing to The Piano Maven, taking out a
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  paid subscription by clicking on the link in
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  our episode description. And paid subscribers
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  get a free download each month, and you also
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  will get advance notices about upcoming episodes
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  and other goodies. Your support always helps
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  to keep this podcast going, and I know you want
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  it to keep it going rather than for it to stop.
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  Certainly that's how I feel. contribute 12 piano
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  pieces, one for each month of the year. And although
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  the composer evidently tossed off these pieces
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  with almost no effort, the music's melodic charm
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  and its emotional directness hold a lot of appeal
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  for audiences. And the increasing number of pianists
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  who've committed the complete cycle of the 12
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  pieces known as The Seasons, to disc I think
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  is particularly telling in its popularity. So
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  as I mentioned before, two of the most visible
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  competition gold medalists of recent years both
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  released recordings of The Seasons in fairly
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  close proximity. You have one on Deutsche Grammophon
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  by Bruce Liu, who was the 2021 Warsaw competition.
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  gold medalist. And his version came out in late
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  2024 on Deutsche Grammophon. And more recently,
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  the 2022 Van Cliburn gold medalist, Yu -Chan
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  Lim, recorded the seasons for DECA. Now, before
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  I went about recording this episode, I saw that
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  my good buddy David Hurwitz reviewed the Yuchan
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  Lim seasons on his YouTube channel, and he thought
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  the interpretations were fussy and mannered.
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  And although I understand why he came to this
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  conclusion, I personally find that Yuchan Lim's
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  admittedly affettuoso gestures have genuine musicality.
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  I think it... comes from a genuine place. And
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  I'm much more convinced of his interpretations
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  than Dave was. So I guess my friend David Hurwitz
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  and I will have to agree to disagree about this
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  recording. And, you know, it's the same case
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  with my long -held reference version of The Seasons
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  featuring Mikhail Pletnev, the one on Virgin
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  Classics. Now, is Pletnev... being affected or
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  is he simply being imaginative? I guess there
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  is a thin line between imagination and affectation.
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  But in any case, I thought it could be interesting
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  to compare the Bruce Liu and Yuchang Lim recordings
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  of the seasons back to back and see what we find.
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  First of all, the engineering is very different
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  for each disc. Bruce Liu recording is closely
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  mic'd and it makes an intimate impact. Whereas
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  the Yuchun Lim seasons was recorded at more of
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  a concert hall distance. And generally, Bruce
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  Liu is the introvert, interpretatively speaking,
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  while Yuchun Lim is the extrovert. And this is
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  very obvious in the opening piece, January. Timings...
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  you know, can always be deceptive. But Yuchan
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  Lim takes 5 minutes and 19 seconds to Bruce Liu's
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  6 minutes and 38 seconds. Bruce is very ruminative,
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  while Yuchan is straightforward. And also, Yuchan
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  Lim takes Tchaikovsky's legato and détaché markings
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  much more literally than Bruce Liu does. Both
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  interpretations of February, the carnival, are
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  brisk and upbeat, but I think that Yuchun Lim
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  has a lighter touch, and sometimes he accelerates
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  the phrases to convey more nervous energy, and
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  I think that's very convincing. Perhaps because
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  of the close microphone perspective, the Imitative
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  treble and bass melody lines in the Song of the
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  Lark, representing the month of March, seem a
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  tad exaggerated in the Bruce Liu recording, although
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  some listeners may find that the textures are
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  really quite three -dimensional in a much more
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  impressive way than I feel. But a similar effect
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  seems less forced. with Yuchun Lim, but this
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  may have to do with the engineering, and this
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  is a case where I feel like the engineering sort
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  of influences how you perceive the performances.
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  Both of these pianists take Snowdrop, which is
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  the piece representing April, at a rather crisp
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  tempo, and they make similar rubatos, although
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  I think perhaps the rubatos are more pronounced
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  with Bruce Liu. Bruce takes a little bit more
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  time in the piece May, White Nights, and I think
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  his reading is very eloquent. Although Yuchan's
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  slightly faster tempo and almost guitar -like
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  way in how he arpeggiates the accompaniment benefits
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  from a little bit more freedom. I would say that
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  in this piece that Yuchong is the bardic folk
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  singer in contrast to Bruce's leader recital,
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  if you know what I mean. And you can say the
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  same when comparing both pianists in the famous
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  Barcarolle that represents the month of June.
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  I find it really hard to choose between these
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  two performances. I like them both. The month
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  of July is represented by the song of the reaper.
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  I mean, somebody who is reaping a harvest. I
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  don't mean the grim reaper. And although Yu Chun
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  Lim has the right kind of thrusting character
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  in this piece, there is something to be said
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  about Bruce Liu's heavier deliberation and stronger
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  accents. Maybe... It's too monumental an interpretation
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  for such a small piece, but I think it's interesting.
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  But for all of Bruce Liu's sophisticated voicing
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  and melody -slash -accompaniment separation in
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  August, The Harvest, I do here prefer Yuchun
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  Lim's faster tempo and his suppler and more nimble
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  execution overall. Now, when it comes to September,
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  The Hunt, to be honest, I really don't care for
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  either of these pianists' interpretation, because
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  neither of them truly lock in rhythmically, nor
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  do they make the clearest distinctions possible
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  between triplet and duplet phrases. You don't
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  get... that rock -solid steadiness and swing
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  that you hear from pianists like Vasily Primakov
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  or Earl Wilde in this piece. And I think that
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  both pianists could move a bit more and not milk
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  that piece, Autumn, representing October so much.
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  I think that they kind of moon over it too much.
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  Although Shura Tchaikovsky... did get away with
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  milking the sucker dry. But he could do it, and
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  these younger pianists couldn't. So that's that.
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  On the other hand, too many pianists swoon over
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  the opening of Troika, which is November. And
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  both Yuchun Lim and Bruce Liu are much more rhythmic
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  in this case, and they understand the music's
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  dance origins. Again, Yuchun has the lighter
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  touch, and Bruce maybe is a little too earnest.
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  He's kind of like a great dancer. dance student
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  next to Yuchan Lim's experienced Fred Astaire
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  or Gene Kelly, if you get my drift. Now, for
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  the last piece, representing the month of December,
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  Bruce Liu's little hesitations and tenutos and
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  other expressive gestures seem too self -aware,
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  to my ears at least. But I find that Yuchan's
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  expressive gestures have much more natural ebb
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  and flow. Although I do have to say that neither
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  pianist gets that organic push and pull and balletic
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  underpinning that Mikhail Platonov brings to
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  this piece. And that's still my favorite interpretation
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  of December of pretty much anybody who's recorded
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  it. So between Bruce Liu and Yuchun Lim in The
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  Seasons, I probably would go for Yuchun Lim,
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  although I still like the force of personality
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  and, again, the balletic sensibility that distinguishes
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  Mikhail Pletnev's recording for Virgin Classics,
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  which is now Warner Classics. And it appears
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  in that recently released box set of Mikhail
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  Pletnev's complete Warner recordings. I haven't
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  gotten that box yet. I'm actually in Warsaw now,
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  so I'm not yet home, and I haven't seen my mail,
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  and I'm just wondering how many box sets have
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  turned up in my mail room. So I still maintain
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  that Mikhail Platnev's Seasons is my reference
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  version, but there are other cycles that really
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  do come close. I love Earl Wilde's. I love the
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  one by Vasily Primakov. Vladimir Ashkenazi has
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  a very nice... version of The Seasons. And there's
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  a very idiomatic and heartfelt interpretation
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  by Mikhail Voskresensky. This one is hard to
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  find, but it's well worth the hunt. It's on the
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  Japanese Triton label. If you ever come across
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  this disc, pick it up without hesitation. So
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  that's my comparison of Tchaikovsky's Seasons
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  with Bruce Liu and Yuchang Lim. This is Jed Disler,
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  and you've been listening to The Piano Maven,
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  your friendly podcast guide to piano recordings,
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  and I look forward to being with you for our
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  next episode.