Yunchan Lim captivates Carnegie Hall with fresh outlook on Schubert, Scriabin

A sold-out sign for Korean pianist Yunchan Lim's April 24 recital hangs at the entrance of Carnegie Hall in New York City. Courtesy of MOC Production

“He looks like a teenager, but plays like a master from the 1980s.”

“He has such an innocent face, but when he plays, he becomes a completely different person.”

“It was amazing — like a birthday gift.”

On April 24 at Carnegie Hall in New York, the crowd lingered well into the night after the performance, animatedly sharing their impressions. This was the scene following pianist Yunchan Lim’s third Carnegie Hall recital, held a year after he left a powerful impression with Bach’s Goldberg Variations.

That evening, Lim performed Franz Schubert’s Piano Sonata No. 17 in D major (D.850) along with Alexander Scriabin’s Piano Sonatas Nos. 2, 3, and 4. Rather than choosing popular repertoire, he filled the program with works demanding deep interpretation and intense concentration. Lim explained that he wanted to “create something that endures the passage of time and remains in memory for a long time,” adding that he chose Schubert and Scriabin because they are composers he has long loved.

In the first half, the Schubert piece clearly showed what kind of musician Lim is becoming. Japanese author Haruki Murakami, known for his deep appreciation of classical music, wrote in “Kafka on the Shore” and his music essay collection “Absolutely on Music” about the “imperfection” of Piano Sonata No. 17. Precisely because of that imperfection, Murakami argued, the work draws in the human heart — and if performed too smoothly, exactly as written, it cannot become true art.

From the very first movement, Lim transformed the work’s irregularity into a driving narrative force rather than a weakness. The 40-minute performance did not feel long at all.

This piece is often called “Gasteiner,” as it is said to capture Schubert’s impressions of the grandeur of nature during his travels to the spa town of Bad Gastein, south of Salzburg, Austria. It is typically described as progressing through movements of vitality, lyricism and playfulness, gradually transformating and expanding. But Lim approached it differently.

Rather than remaining within a single emotional state, each movement simultaneously held joy and anxiety, humor and sorrow. With his characteristic rubato — free, flexible control of tempo — he concluded the piece with an unexpected timing and tone, adding a touch of wit even to the final note. Smiles spread across the audience’s faces.

Yunchan Lim / Courtesy of Fadi Kheir

It was a moment that curiously echoed a line from music critic Harry Haskell’s program notes, which introduced a contemporary assessment of the work: “very difficult but very rewarding to a master hand.”

In the second half, the program included Russian composer Scriabin’s Piano Sonata No. 2, a work Lim performed in the second round of the 2022 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition — a defining moment that helped cement his victory as the youngest-ever winner at the prestigious event founded by the late piano virtuoso Van Cliburn. Lim played the three sonatas almost without pause, making them feel less like separate pieces and more like a single monumental work.

The dreamlike imagery of the sea and moonlight (No. 2), the struggle of the soul (No. 3) and the climactic transformation and expansion (No. 4) unfolded like a continuous narrative of one composer’s evolving musical world.

At Carnegie Hall, where curtain call photography is permitted, the audience rose to their feet the moment the performance ended, pulling out their phones all at once. For the encore, Lim chose Rachmaninoff’s “Vocalise.” Rachmaninoff, a classmate of Scriabin at the Moscow Conservatory, once performed Scriabin’s Piano Sonata No. 2 at Carnegie Hall in 1919.

Even after the encore, four more curtain calls followed. Lim’s face — previously hidden behind long hair — was now fully visible, drenched in sweat after two hours of intense performance.

This recital program, which began in Hong Kong in March and continued through Japan, Taiwan, and New York, will now lead into his first Korean recital tour in two years. The Seoul performances will take place on May 6 at Lotte Concert Hall and on May 12 at Seoul Arts Center.

After the rock star-like ovation he received at Carnegie Hall, Lim is set to return there again this fall. Starting Oct. 21 and continuing through May next year, he will present four concerts performing Mozart’s 18 piano sonatas.

Yunchan Lim / Courtesy of Universal Music

The Korean pianist’s three recitals at Carnegie Hall thus far have represented some of the most taxing programs in the solo piano repertoire.

In 2024, Lim made his Carnegie Hall debut with Liszt’s complete Transcendental Etudes, the centerpiece of his competition repertoire at the 2022 Cliburn. The following year, Lim returned with Bach’s Goldberg Variations, which was released as a live recording by Decca earlier this year.

This article from the Hankook Ilbo, the sister publication of The Korea Times, is translated by a generative AI system and edited by The Korea Times.