Taken live from the 2022 Van Cliburn International Competition eighteen-year-old Yun Chan's performance of Rachmaninov's Third Concerto, partnered with special musical sympathy by Marin Alsop, not only confirmed his astonishing earlier performances of Liszt's Twelve Transcendental Etudes but stormed still further heights in playing of a blazing aplomb. The composer himself who gave the premiere of this Concerto conducted by Mahler would surely have been astonished by such early mastery.
Holding his fire(a parallel here with Martha Argerich's legendary performance) in the opening 'Allegro ma non tanto, yet releasing a thunderous burst of virtuosity in the climax of the cadenza(the finer less heavyweight of the two) there is a hint here of what is to follow, of a pianist who can seethe and confide, his ferocity growing organically, as it were, out of calm as in his blistering climax to the second movement's 'Intermezzo,' The finale opens with a sky-rocketing blaze of virtuosity eliminating all possible earlier restraint. He is fearless in the cascades of notes and never more so than when Rachmaninov embellishes his theme, catching it in a maze of scintillating brilliance and complexity. Few if ever performances at a competition have ended with a greater, near manic sense of triumph. Listening fellow competitors must have felt little than wonder and despair. How is it even possible to play like this?
As a necessary addition I should emphasize that Lim's subsequent London recitals, the first devoted to Dowland, Bach and Beethoven, the second to Bach's 'Goldberg' Variations were triumphs of another order, the adrenalin- fuelled tension of the competition let far behind in performances of the rarest poetry and imaginative scope. At twenty-one Lim's versatility and command are things to marvel at.
Returning to Lim's Rachmaninov and the claim that it was the greatest of all performances of this daunting masterpiece is to reduce serious critical commentary . Yet while I would never want to be without previous recordings by Horowitz(his earlier rather than later versions), Gilels, Argerich and Van Cliburn(his 1958 performance at the Tchaikovsky Competition which caused his jurors, including Gilels, Richter and Shostakovich, to listen in awe) Lim takes his place even at this exalted level.
The Cliburn's history has been troubled with stories of corruption and with too many winners who quickly disappeared from sight and sound. Yunchan Lim is the very tonic needed to restore faith, even if he makes it difficult to imagine another even remotely parallel success.
Bryce Morrison