Moments in Timelessness

Rachmaninoff: Piano Concerto No. 3 (Live from the 2022 Cliburn Competition) Album ∙ Classical ∙ 2025 Yunchan Lim ,  Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra  &  Marin Alsop Here’s the performance which instantly placed Korean pianist Yunchan Lim “on the map.” In 2022, with this scintillating account of one of the most physically demanding concertos in the repertoire, the then 18-year-old became the youngest winner to date of the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. The opening is deceptively low-key, Lim playing its Russian Orthodox chant-like theme with a patrician calm, characteristic of Rachmaninoff’s own performances, many captured on record (and available to stream). There’s just time to admire how the Fort Worth Symphony, under the baton of Marin Alsop (herself chair of the competition jury), truly blend Rachmaninoff’s rich colors before you realize that Lim has smoothly accelerated to a speed all the more remarkable for the clear articulation of every note and phr...

Chopin: Études, Op. 10 & 25 Album ∙ Classical ∙ 2024 Yunchan Lim Chopin composed the first of his Etudes when he was 19. By neat coincidence, Yunchan Lim was the same age when he recorded the composer’s fiendishly difficult, musically profound keyboard studies. The Korean pianist’s vision of Chopin’s two dozen pieces blends the fearless virtuosity of youth with a maturity associated with artists three times his age. Lim, who shot to fame in 2022 as the youngest winner of the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, produces a potent blend of showmanship and artistry, subtle voicing and pinpoint articulation, exquisite legato and arresting dynamic shifts, all harnessed to strikingly individual expression. “Chopin’s Etudes were a mountain I had to overcome someday,” he tells Apple Music Classical. “For the recording, I had the compulsion to be technically perfect. But I think every note is like a leaf swaying in the wind and should be as beautiful as nature itself. I feel Chopin ...

Chopin: Études, Opp. 10 & 25 ALBUM ∙ CLASSICAL ∙ 2024 Yunchan Lim “Chopin’s Etudes were a mountain I had to overcome someday.”