Yun-chan Lim

In the coming months, we will be featuring interviews with musicians of various backgrounds. If you are a musician and would like to be featured in our series, please contact us at thecounterpoints[@]gmail.com. A complete list of our interviews can be found here. Follow us on Twitter@elijahho.

There are few comparables for what transpired this past June in Fort Worth, Texas. Music lovers around the world watched in bewilderment as an 18-year-old South Korean pianist set new competition standards, first ripping through Liszt’s Transcendental Etudes, then moving listeners to tears in Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto in D minor (Op. 30). Below is the transcript of our September 2022 e-mail exchange with the phenomenal pianist, Yun-chan Lim.

(Our piece on Yun-chan Lim for the Bay Area News Group - with additional comments by Stephen Hough, Marin Alsop, and Lim’s teacher, Min-soo Sohn, can be found here)

(Our SFCV review of Yun-chan Lim’s West Coast debut recital can be found here)

EH: At what age did you realize that your musical gifts were perhaps a bit unusual ?

 Lim: 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.

EH: Do you believe you played your very best at the Van Cliburn ? Is there much more you could have done in, say, the Transcendental Etudes or the Rachmaninoff Third ?

Lim: I don't think I was in my best condition at the Cliburn competition. I entered the stage thinking about Carl Sagan's ‘Pale Blue Dot’, but I couldn't help being nervous and couldn't show 100% of me. I had to create more universes and there was a possibility, but it didn't come out easily.

EH: The world would love to know your thoughts on the Rachmaninoff Third Piano Concerto. Whose recording inspired you to play it so magnificently ? Is Rachmaninoff a composer who speaks to you on a personal level ?

Lim: 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 decided that it's right to listen to the most basic recordings.

EH: On the other hand, is there a composer whose works you cannot fall in love with – or a period of music - that simply does not speak to you ?

Lim: My teacher said, "The composer is not at fault, the performer is always the problem."

EH: Stephen Hough, Daniil Trifonov, and Marc-Andre Hamelin are a few of today’s pianists who perform and also compose. Do you spend any time composing ? Is it necessary for a great performer to compose ?

Lim: Every pianist has to compose. I learned music (composition) at school for two years from Jeon Minje, a 2009 winner at the Queen Elizabeth competition, composition category. He told me that a pianist should compose and play his own music. If I can do that, I'll do that.

EH: After the competition, you told the world, “I made up my mind that I will live my life only for the sake of music, and I decided that I will give up everything for music”. What a beautiful sentiment. What are some of the more meaningful musical moments – recordings, live performances, or personal music-making – that have led you to this decision ?

Lim: I think the most beautiful moment to taste music is when a musician practices in the practice room. The artist's practice room is a space that creates various universes, and you can see the frustration and joy of making great music through many attempts. This process was not only for my teacher, but also by pianists like Schnabel and Sofronitsky.

EH: One of the more famous prodigies in America, George Li, told me he was practicing 3-5 hours a day by age 8; as many as 6 hours by age 9; and by his teens, he was doing eight hours whenever possible. How much practicing did you do growing up ? Are you a compulsive practicer, or do you need to be pushed with lessons, concerts, deadlines, etc ?

Lim: George Li is one of the musicians I respect most, and I have always admired him for learning from my teachers, Russell Sherman and Wha Kyung Byun. 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. It could be pressure for the concert. Because there is pressure not to disappoint people who pay to see it.

 EH: People have noticed a breath of freshness, a certain unbridled freedom you attack pieces with. Do you take chances when you are on stage ?

Lim: I think every pianist can improvise. In fact, Horowitz and Rachmaninoff admired Art Tatum, and the Hungarian musician, Liszt, was also a master of improvisation. If you just do what you've practiced, it causes tension and you lose many possibilities on stage.

EH: What is your relationship with the audience ? Do you deal with stage fright, or, are you like Arthur Rubinstein, who needed an audience in order to give his very best impression of the music ?

Lim: Music was born to communicate. I want to share my ideas with the audience and ask them for their opinions, and this is probably one of the most beautiful things in the world.

EH: You are quickly becoming one of the most talked about musicians in the field. What is one thing listeners probably don’t know about you that you would like for them to know ?

Lim: Not really, because I'm just a person who makes music, and I'm not much of a person at all.

EH: You are currently working with Professor Minsoo Sohn at the Korea National University of Arts. What are some of the most helpful ideas he has imparted upon you ? Will you stay with Professor Sohn, or do you have plans to study with others in the future ?

Lim: I can't tell you my future plan, because I don't know if I'll die tomorrow or seven days later. My teacher’s musical ideas surprise me every time, and Sohn always comes up with new ideas. Sohn values interpretations that people can understand. All ideas are based on good evidence, and my teacher says it's important to bring out the songs deep in my heart into the real world, not to play them like the trends that others play.

EH: Which pianists - dead or alive - mean the most to you ?

Lim: There are so many artists in my mind, but Stanislav Neuhaus, Cortot, Schnabel, Horowitz, Rachmaninoff, Yudina, Josef Lhevinne, etc. are most inspiring to me.

EH: It is the responsibility of the performer to be faithful to the score. Is it possible for a great performer to surpass the vision of the composer ? (I’m thinking of those like Horowitz and Gould, here)

Lim: In fact, no one knows what a composer wanted. Even the composer himself might have something he wants to fix if he were to come back to life. Every musician should be able to sing his or her own song in a given score. If you look at Horowitz's performances, he adds notes that are not in the score, or sings in a completely different phrase, but it doesn't matter because it persuades many artists.

EH: Because everybody struggles with something – which Chopin or Liszt Etude is the most difficult for your hand ?

Lim: I've played all 24 of Chopin's Etudes and op. 25 a lot, but I haven’t played the whole op. 10 on-stage yet. But what I feel is that the Chopin Etude, which has to express characters and the universe for each song, is more difficult.

EH: Your upcoming program in California includes the astonishing Liszt ‘Dante’ sonata. You said you almost memorized Dante’s book from cover to cover. How long does it take you to learn and memorize a piece like the Rachmaninoff Third Piano Concerto ?

Lim: I played the Dante sonata in 2020 and read so many times the great man Dante. Maybe not now, but at the time, I remembered enough to say the words of the book without looking at it, and I think it really meant that I was inspired by Dante. It depends on the piece, but in Rachmaninoff's case, it took seven days for each movement to memorize it.

EH: Korean-pop culture has recently turned into a global phenomenon. Do you listen to pop music yourself ? Are you proud of the growing international success of your country ?

Lim: I'm very proud of the international success of the music, but at the same time, I haven’t listened to a single thing yet.

EH: There are some who hold the belief that a pianist from country X cannot truly understand the culture of a composer from country Y ? What are your thoughts on this matter ?

Lim: Only the stupidest people in the world would have that idea. A great pianist from Japan can understand Rachmaninoff 100%, and a great pianist from India can understand Beethoven. Because this is music. If you try hard enough, you can understand everything about the composer. This is a matter of individual, not race and nationality.

EH: Is there anything about the state of music right now – bad programs, musical ignorance, the way performers sound, lack of inspiration, etc. – that you would like to change ?

Lim: I do feel that the world is changing one dimensionally. I think there are a lot of people who swear when new things come out, because they live in a one-dimensional world, they don't get 12 dimensions of inspiration. Artists have to try new things every time and think constantly.

EH: Thank you for taking the time, Yun-chan. And all my very best to you.

Lim: Thank you!

If you are a musician and would like to be featured in our series, please contact us at thecounterpoints[@]gmail.com. A complete list of our interviews can be found here. Follow us on Twitter@elijahho.