United Kingdom Hanruji Lee, Bach: Yunchan Lim (piano). Wigmore Hall, London, 8.4.2025. (MBr)
Hanruji Lee – …round and velvety – smooth blend…
Bach – Goldberg Variations BWV988
Bach’s Goldberg Variations are endlessly fascinating, and no more so in the length of time it takes a pianist to play them. The South Korean pianist Yunchan Lim clearly takes the view – or he currently does – that around 80 minutes is an ideal time to get through the work – a time that places him at odds with pianists like Atsuko Jinzai (45 minutes) and Noburo Toyomasu (35 minutes) and much closer to Takahiro Sonoda (75 minutes) and Minsoo Sohn (76 minutes). But how much of this is an illusion, when what we are hearing is much more complex?
Quite characteristic of Lim’s Goldberg’s was a tendency for tempi to stray to the extreme, especially in the canons. The Aria had perhaps hinted at this – strikingly phrased, and gorgeously pedalled, with a tone that gave the piano just a hint of melancholy. Bass notes, almost sounding like a cello (a nod to Bachian string solos would be a characteristic of this recital), would have a true richness to them (they would return again in Variation 3 to quite magical effect). Tempi in Variation 4 (on 3/8) sounded faster than on the earlier Variation 3 (in the same tempo), but the passage work, the finger work were astonishing in their accuracy. Hand-crosses in Variation 5 were crystal clear.
No.8 had an element of virtuosic sparkle to it – the left-hand bass superb, overlapping lines knitted out with precision. No.11 felt a touch too fast, but the trills and hand crosses were thrilling – playing of diamond-like brilliance, yet still able to capture the lyricism that runs through the variation. Even more impressive, perhaps, was Variation 14 – a wonderful contrast to Lim’s playing of a deeply reflective No.13 which had taken us back to the opening Aria. Variation 15 sounded almost like an organ in places, its chorale majestic, the spaciousness of the Andante allowing the phrases to float with dramatic possibility. Variation 20 was a microcosm of Lim’s virtuosity: crossed arpeggios and hand leaps and an ability to poise colour and contrast on the keyboard. The tumbling, geometric scales of Variation 23 were almost impulsive.
Lim’s finest performance of a variation came in No.25 – the greatest of the set. There was something Wagnerian (Parsifal came to mind) about his playing of this magnificent piece, his bass so rich and deep the music almost ceased to sound like Bach at all. The inexorable power of the left hand; the dark desire running through it – and rising octaves that had astonishing expressive range. In no other variation did the listener feel so drawn into the vastness of Bach’s Goldberg’s, or into the immensity of Lim’s performance of it. The brilliance of No.29 was refreshing, and Variation 30 sang the theme of the opening Aria with the same richness of expression with which this journey had begun.
Yunchan Lim’s Goldberg Variations often felt at their greatest where the music was at its slowest, where introspection allowed him to achieve some kind of resolution to this music that often has no resolution. At times, his virtuosity in the dances and arabesques erred on the side of casual, the briskness sometimes perhaps even impatient. On the other hand, the canons were often of superlative insight, coloured in ways that that understood all their melancholy, contemplation, sadness or passion. Variation 25 in particular was a tour de force, its range as luminous and dazzling as any I have heard. A modern interpretation perhaps, but one also, I think, entirely encompassing this pianist’s willingness to make Bach sound almost ‘orchestral’ in parts (or certainly give sections of the music a more instrumental – cello or violin – feel that extended well beyond either the piano or even Bach himself).
The recital opened with Hanruji Lee’s …round and velvety – smooth blend… which was composed for Lim. In two parts, ‘Élégie’ and ‘Rudepoema’, the work is one of lament and dynamism. Lim’s performance brought virtuosic rawness to its multiple layers: subtle pedalling, eruptive keyboard playing and introspective contemplation.
Marc Bridle
Featured Image: Pianist Yunchan Lim at Wigmore Hall