Making piano history
Paris-based HJ Lim, who made headlines with her Beethoven sonata cycle for EMI, will make her Seoul debut in May. / Courtesy of Mastmedia
Youngest artist to record full Beethoven sonata cycle to make Seoul debut
By Do Je-hae
Lim Hyung-jeong, or HJ Lim, may not be the most well-known among her generation of Korean pianists. But she certainly is the boldest, making her recording debut for EMI with none other than the complete cycle of the 32 Beethoven sonatas.
For any concert pianist, an exclusive contract with an influential company like EMI is a miracle in itself. But to debut with the 32 Beethoven sonatas is an incredible feat not likely to be repeated in the near future.
Already an exclusive Yamaha artist, she signed with EMI in 2011 and became the youngest pianist in history to record the complete cycle of the sonatas.
Despite her unique achievements, she is not well known in her homeland. The Paris-based pianist will give her first recital in Seoul on May 23 at Seoul Arts Center, according to Mastmedia, Tuesday. She will present a program of Ravel, Chopin and Beethoven.
The highlight of the program is the Piano Sonata No.29 "Hammerklavier" by Beethoven, one of the greatest piano sonatas ever written.
It was with a KBS program "Age of Success" featuring Lim in December 2012 that the Korean audience got a first real glimpse of her.
She moved to France by herself at age 12, leaving her parents and three brothers, to study piano. She eventually graduated from the "Conservatoire National Superieur de Musique de Paris," one of the most prestigious institutes in Europe.
The show features several experts including Russian conductor Alexandre Rabinovitch, a close friend of the Argentine virtuoso Martha Argerich, expressing their awe at Lim's artistry and musicianship.
Speaking of a concert in Paris that he had seen, Rabinovitch remarked: "All the studies (etudes) of Rachmaninoff and Chopin in one concert... it was a big, big success. Only she can play this program at this high level."
YouTube, Billboard sensation
Even the most seasoned and respected Austro-German specialists, such as Alfred Brendel, have taken years to finish a full recording cycle and did so at the peak of their careers, not the beginning.
EMI has had several Beethoven sonata cycles in its history, notably an impassioned one featuring the young Daniel Barenboim in the late 1960s. The latest is by Lim, who has been making a name for herself in Europe.
But even before the EMI debut, Lim had already become famous for a YouTube video playing "The Flight of the Bumblebee" at lightning speed that gained more than 250,000 views. The video clip features her playing the famous encore piece by Rimsky-Korsakov during a concert in Switzerland in 2009.
She posted the video to share her performance with her family in Korea, as they couldn't travel with her. The video caught the attention of EMI.
In 2010, she first played all of the Beethoven sonatas over a period of eight days in Paris. For EMI, she recorded them by grouping them into eight themes, each symbolizing a period in Beethoven's life.
"I view these sonatas by Beethoven as the most intense diary. To perform Beethoven’s sonatas is not just to interpret music, but also an attempt to understand the multi-faceted psychology of a human being," Lim said in a press release.
With the recording, Lim became the first Korean classical musician to top the Billboard classical chart in June 2012. She is also the first Korean artist to top the iTunes classical chart in Canada and the U.S.
The only other Korean pianist to record all Beethoven’s sonatas with a major company is Paik Kun-woo, also a Paris-based artist who recorded the works for Decca during 2005-2007. A complete set was released in 2008.
British daily The Telegraph has called Lim's Beethoven recording "musical viagra," paying tribute to her dazzling technique and interpretive flair.
Her next recording will feature works by Ravel and Scriabin.