Yunchan Lim untangles Bach’s Goldberg Variations
Reporting in Theguardian says Yunchan Lim recorded the Goldberg Variations live at Carnegie Hall last year, riding the momentum of a run of performances, including two in London. Those who enjoyed his interpretation at Wigmore Hall will find plenty of the same rewarding elements here, not least the seeming ease with which the 21-year-old pianist untangles the music’s complex web of threads.
Theguardian notes his interpretation wasn’t set in stone: perhaps the New York performance had a more muscular bent, or perhaps the hints of romanticism in the later variations in London don’t register as strongly on a recording as in the hall. What is more striking on the recording is a strength in the faster variations that sometimes verges on the mechanical: impressive, and a little overdone, and there are touches of playfulness when in a couple of the variations he switches to a higher octave, the music sounding lighter than air.