The New York Times has taken a shine to Yunchan Lim, winner of last summer’s Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in Fort Worth. The South Korean pianist, now 19, was featured in a May 9 profile by Times writer Javier C. Hernández, and his debut with the New York Philharmonic got a rave review May 11 from critic Zachary Woolfe.
Reviewing Lim’s performance of the Rachmaninoff Third Piano Concerto, with James Gaffigan conducting, Woolfe hailed the pianist’s “juxtaposition of precise clarity and expansive reverie; the vivid scenes and bursts of wit; the sense of contrasting yet organically developing moods; the endless and persuasive bendings of time.”
“Lim’s playing had a quietly, calmly penetrating lucidity … But he was unafraid of power. In his hands, the great, pounding first-movement cadenza was granitic, though never sludgy.”
The youngest gold medalist in the history of the Cliburn and still a college sophomore, Lim impressed Hernández as quietly intense but humble. Still, he wrote, “Lim has inspired a devout following in the United States, Europe and Asia. He has become a symbol of pride in South Korea, where he has been described as classical music’s answer to K-pop.”
