How Yunchan Lim modified my thoughts about Tchaikovsky’s ‘Seasons’ : NPR

Typically it takes a first-rate artist to breathe life right into a second-rate piece of music.

Let’s be trustworthy, the set of piano miniatures referred to as The Seasons isn’t top-shelf Tchaikovsky. Particularly in case you evaluate it to Swan Lake, the ballet he was ending in late 1875 when he was approached by the editor of a St. Petersburg music periodical. The composer was supplied good-looking cost to put in writing a sequence of piano postcards depicting every month of the 12 months, in chronological order. The writer added his personal descriptive subtitles for every bit.

Only some pianists have recorded the whole cycle, providing competent performances of those serviceable little items. However one thing unequalled is going on in a brand new stay recording of The Seasons by the younger sensation Yunchan Lim. At age 18, the South Korean was the youngest ever to seize the gold medal on the Van Cliburn Worldwide Piano Competitors in 2022. It was one other Russian’s music — Rachmaninov‘s thunderous Third Piano Concerto — that clinched Lim’s victory. Tchaikovsky’s salon-like, mid-tempo Seasons could not be extra completely different.

All of it begins cozied as much as a crackling fireplace within the month of January, the place Lim finds a lot tenderness in Tchaikovsky’s delicately rolled chords. However for Lim, that fireplace is not blazing, it is truly fizzling out. He has concocted a storyline for the cycle, detailed within the album’s liner notes, which renders the writer’s picturesque subtitles all however ineffective. Lim views The Seasons as the ultimate, somber, 12 months in an outdated man’s life. And that units up a probably attention-grabbing paradox of the younger and strong envisioning the outdated and feeble.

Whether or not you purchase Lim’s melodramatic narrative or not, the album is proof that his swelling romanticism is changing into his best energy. “I’ve made up my thoughts I’ll stay my life just for the sake of music, and I made a decision that I’ll surrender every little thing for music,” Lim has stated. That appears like one thing the heart-on-sleeve Tchaikovsky would possibly say himself.

The month of February depicts an effervescent carnival, whereas March, titled “Track of the Lark” by Tchaikovsky’s writer, is lyrically wealthy. However in Lim’s eyes, it is fraught with tears, tragedy and the unexplained loss of a kid. Irrespective of. Right here we discover one in all Lim’s most interesting performances, sounding ethereal, off-the-cuff, as if improvised, nearly like jazz.

Tchaikovsky’s Seasons comprises one thing of a success single. It is the month of June (“Barcarolle”), one of many composer’s most wistful and exquisite melodies, propelled by a gently swaying beat. And here’s a second to get molecular — to listen to the Yunchan Lim distinction — by evaluating the opening phrase of “June.” In his completely high-quality 2014 recording, pianist Pavel Kolesnikov appears to measure every observe with a ruler to verify they’re equidistant. However Lim opts for a nuanced rhythmic push and pull, and refined dynamic management which affords an additional emotional tug.

Lim is barely 21 now, however he performs like an outdated soul. Within the month of October, one other spotlight of the album, his astounding, featherlight contact intertwines a pair of heartbreaking melodies, one seemingly calling out from a distance. It is a probing, intense, introspective account, not not like the efficiency Lim gave final 12 months earlier than a shocked viewers at NPR’s Tiny Desk. The pianist compares the darkly lit music to J.S. Bach‘s Goldberg Variation No. 25, usually nicknamed the “Black Pearl” for its crepuscular vibe.

The Seasons concludes at Christmastime. Lim’s protagonist is, as standard, full of remorse, however you would not have the ability to inform by Tchaikovsky’s jaunty waltz, which Lim dares to render simply barely off kilter at one level.

Ultimately, Lim’s imposed storyline won’t add up. However does it matter? The poetry of his performances has remodeled these odd items into one thing extraordinary. The album proves that Lim’s delicate facet may be his most audacious — and has pressured me to alter my thoughts about Tchaikovsky’s Seasons.