An exclusive interview with Cliburn’s shy winner
NewsThe California writer Elijah Ho has landed a revealing conversation with Yun-chan Lim, the 18 year-old Korean pianist who reduced his conductor to tears in the final of this year’s Van Cliburn Competition.
His frankness is startling.
Among his observations:
‘I never thought I had musical talent in my life. I started playing the piano at the age of seven, and I’m just a person who loves music so much that I’m trying to make great music.’
‘Rachmaninoff is like Bach. All the voices are singing their own beautiful songs, and they’re developed in a really detailed relationship to create highlights. It’s one of the most important factors in Rachmaninoff. I’ve rarely listened to any other playing than Horowitz and Rachmaninoff.’
‘I practiced for 4 to 5 hours when I was young, but I practiced for 8 hours since I was 12 years old, and now I do it all day.’
‘I can’t tell you my future plan, because I don’t know if I’ll die tomorrow or seven days later.’
More – much more – here.
Correction: many legends that leads the way*
“…I’m just a person who makes music, and I’m not much of a person at all.”
He is a wonderful musician, but the statement is a contradiction of sorts. His personhood is, so far, in his music. He is so young, he may become consumed by himself without discovering what he might become, not only as a person, but as a musician. This statement is one made by a very young person and extremely idealistic. One needs to live life in a whole way in order to understand what drives a composer’s ideas. Otherwise, music becomes an abstraction, like a mathematical equation. Music is the expression of the fullness of humanity. I hope he gets to live a bit outside of practicing all day.
I didn’t click the link. Did he talk about his obsessed fans that go every pianists (including my legends that leads the way to current pianists) performance videos that played the same piece as him and act like they all suck an Lim is the the most legendary of all? He is seems such a modest, introverted and immensely talented kid, unfortunately has a bunch of ignorant k-pop converted fans, followers, worshippers whatever…
Appreciate him and your comment too. He’s inspiring. Mathematical representations or not, the player and the listener can decide. I mean, come on, survival and the chance of falling in love can be represented mathematically – but the experience of survival and love aren’t present in the math as far as I can tell.
1) Don’t be taken by that Asian false humility “I’m nobody” façade. It’s a trope. He knows exactly where he fits in today’s classical music market.
2) I hope he resists his Western agents/stylists who will want to feminize his looks (with some ungodly curly perm) the way they feminized Li Yundi.
his hair is naturally curly and thick
I have a similar sentiment about the ignorant k-pop converted fans. But I disagree about the fake humility thing. He seems genuinely modest and humble. He has a teacher in Korea who studied abroad but it’s different from actually studying abroad himself. He should seriously consider studying in France or Germany and hopefully get rid of those crazy fans.