Last Sunday, Eastman students and Rochester citizens alike shuffled into a nearly sold-out Kodak Hall to hear 20-year-old pianist Yunchan Lim play. He performed an enrapturing take of Bach’s Goldberg Variations, playing for nearly 90 minutes straight and making every piano major in the room feel faint.
In 2022, Lim, then age 18, was the youngest person ever to win the Van Cliburn Piano Competition. His performance of Liszt’s Transcendental Etudes has amassed over 16 million views, becoming the most popular recording of the piece by far.
From the first bittersweet aria, the audience seemed to be in a trance. The countermelodies conversed in a push-and-pull like fashion, never overpowering each other but simply existing in symbiosis.
Then, the real magic happened. Lim launched into variation after variation, transforming the original melody into little light snippets or artistic expression. The variations each presented as their own unique emotion, with Lim’s subtle yet powerful shifts in expression driving home a masterful rendition.
When one variation finished, no one dared to make a sound. There was a calm spell over the crowd in anticipation for the next variation to begin. It was as if the audience was scared that if they moved, they would break the spell and lose something special forever.
Although the Goldberg Variations were great, perhaps the most captivating part of the concert was the encore. When Lim walked back on stage and sat at the piano, the audience immediately silenced and scrambled to find their seats as well, anxious to see what he would follow this difficult piece with. Then, with a calm stillness in his body, he began Bach’s Prelude and Fugue in C Major, one of the most iconically simple pieces out there.
Lim seemed to paint with the phrases, leaving showmanship behind in favor of talent and expression. And, at the end of the two-minute piece, the audience erupted into applause once again. I bet they didn’t cheer this loud when their eight-year-old played this in their piano recital.
As I saw all of the students exiting the theater, I couldn’t help but think that Lim came at a perfect time for Eastman. Many refer to the long weeks in between fall and winter break as the ‘dark days’ of the semester — think students dragging themselves from class to class, trying to motivate themselves to practice under mounds of homework. Seeing someone who is the same age as Eastman students sell out Kilbourn hall in a matter of days, be moved to Kodak, then proceed to nearly sell that out too, is nothing if not motivating.
Lim’s rendition of Prelude and Fugue in C Major proves that a performance does not have to be musically complex to be powerful. His final encore choice almost seemed cocky. He seemed to say ‘Look! I can play the most simple piece ever, and I still make it a piece of art.’ By performing this piece, Lim stripped his artistry down to its bare bones, and let the audience focus wholly on his interpretation of the music. Almost bragging, Lim shows that he doesn’t need any added fanfare to make a piece touching.
Perhaps worst of all, Lim isn’t just a phenomenal concert soloist. He is a music school student, just like us. Lim studies with his original teacher from Korea National Institute for the Gifted Arts, Minsoo Sohn, at the New England Conservatory.
Seeing someone so similar to the Eastman students become so successful is sure to rekindle some motivation in this slump. There is nothing like a healthy dose of existential dread to motivate a practice session! Now, off to the annex and grab a practice room — there is much work to be done!
