Yunchan Lim wows the Proms with muted intensity
OrchestrasTwo members of the audience collapsed in the first half of last night’s BBC Prom concert. The air-conditioning at the Royal Albert Hall was on full-blast but the atmosphere in the pit was choking.
And then there was Yunchan.
A wisp of a pianist, barely filling his dark suit, the 20 year-old Korean sat at the piano with an authority unseen in one so young. His entry in Beethoven’s Emperor Concerto was so quiet the conductor Paavo Jarvi had to tamp down the BBC Symphony Orchestra and let the soloist dictate dynamics.
I think I heard a pin drop in the Adagio – its tune plundered by Bernstein in West Side Story – but I might be mistaken. Some around me barely dared to breathe. The finale, which often feels self-repetitive, was dashed off at Olympic speed.
Yunchan Lim returned for two ovations. With the second he played a Bach transcription, then he was gone. No wave of farewell. Almost an apparition.
photo: BBC/Chris Christodoulou
One hopes for more frequent appearances in London.
Surely the place wasn’t as hot as in 2023 when Barenboim conducted The Ring, and it was 36C outside? And then two years ago when it was certainly 38 point something outside?
I didn’t attend or follow the Proms in 2013, but 2 years ago, the audience numbers on the hottest days of the year were quite sparse as many people avoided travelling on public transport or otherwise altogether.
The auditorium has air cooling (not air conditioning), as the staff told me, so if it is not completely full it can actually feel luxuriously cool and pleasant inside. I was at this Prom and it was literally packed to the rafters – all the seats were occupied and even the standing places in the top floor gallery were taken, as well as the arena downstairs. There was a loud thud each time someone fainted (during the concerto and during the encore).
When it’s not as hot as 30°C, many people don’t take precautions like drinking enough water before they stand for a 50 minute first half. Or it could simply be that it was their first time Promming (standing in the arena or gallery) and they had no idea that it is important to be adequately hydrated for standing.
I meant 2013 not 2023 and Barenboim.
‘The finale, which often feels self-repetitive…’. That’s deliberate; it’s called rondo form. You could say the same of the last movements of most classical symphonies.
To whom does it often feel self-repetitive, anyway? It’s never appeared that way to me, ever since I first heard it – I believe that was in the days when we’d never had it so good, courtesy of Harold Macmillan. It’s always remained that good since then. Maybe I have been listening to the wrong performances?
If the work needs spicing up, then I recommend Gieseking with the Rundfunksinfonieorchester Berlin under Arthur Rother, dating from 1944. There is some added percussion, clearly audible, in the form of urban redevelopment, delicately provided by Bomber Harris – not always strictly on the beat.
Never mind the orchestra or the rest of the program…
The concerto and Bruckner’s Symphony #1 are available for listening on Radio 3 for the next couple of months.
I listened with some interest after all the hype. Absolutely nothing special …
Really? I feel for your loss.
I found it striking in the contrast between Yunchan’s two performances of Beethoven’s 5th piano concerto inside of one week. First with Pappano and the Verbier Festival Orchestra then with Jarvi and the BBC. Both were outstanding in their own right!
If one wishes to experience a truly great Emperor Concerto, come hear Jorge Federico Osorio perform the work this Friday evening with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at the Ravinia Festival in Highland park, IL. Nobody plays this concerto as does he. Several years ago, Osorio performed all five Beethoven concerti at Ravinia in two consecutive evenings with James Conlon and the CSO. It was sensational!!!
Wonderful review with the power of brevity. Every time I hear Yunchan Lim play the Emperor, it’s a goosebumps revelation.
A tremendously talented young man who plays with beautiful intent and execution. Every performance like fresh poetry!
So much for all the naysayers soiling themselves in the SD comments thread on his Cliburn competition. . .
A guy I know who was in the arena said that three people fainted , not two. He could be mistaken/ exaggerating of course. A very audible thump as he person hits the floor towards the end of the 2nd movement.
I frankly don’t understand how the soloist’s entrance can conceivably be “soft.” So confusing.
Muted is right, when I heard him in the states. The best is yet to come.
Lim is a brilliant young pianist. His Liszt Transcendental Etudes in the final round of the 2022 Van Cliburn competition was something quite special- indeed astonishing. I only listened on the radio & his Emperor Concerto with the BBCSO was so so.
Both technically extremely impressive & musically interesting for the most part- perhaps lacking the last degree of gravitas of the great Beethoven interpreters (one thinks of Kempff, Schnabel, Michelangeli- wonderful in this concerto, Perahia & even Barenboim) & he made heavy weather of the adagio- indulging in agogic, attention grabbing distortions of the melodic line- not written by Ludwig Van B. But he’s very young & will no doubt develop into one of the world’s major pianists. His fine musical instincts were sadly not matched by the BBCSO under Jarvi (an overrated conductor who is content just to beat time a lot) who sounded tired, disengaged & sometimes not together- not good for a pro orchestra.