Very soon in 2022 after becoming the youngest ever winner of the Van Cliburn piano competition in Fort Worth, Texas at the age of 18, word got around that the South Korean Yunchan Lim was something special. His London debut at the Wigmore Hall the following year, in a programme that avoided the high romantic repertoire that had so impressed the Cliburn judges, confirmed that this was a prodigiously gifted, immensely exciting pianist, and one who still had room to mature and grow further as an artist.
Lim’s first disc for Decca more than reinforces those first impressions. These are thrilling performances of Chopin’s studies, the technique dazzlingly immaculate and the musical impulses propelling it often startlingly original. There are still moments when youthful impetuosity leads him to misjudge things or rush them just a bit too much, but those are few and far between, and it’s much better to enjoy the brilliance of Lim’s playing, whether in the breathtaking evenness of the A minor study Op 10 no 2, the sheer delicacy of Op 25 no 6 in G sharp minor, or in the fresh details he consistently reveals, especially in the left hand.
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