A Coarsely Coruscating Commentary on Baroque Expression: Yunchan Lim’s ‘Goldberg Variations’ at Wigmore Hall

Dazzling listeners with zealous takes, the pianist delivered virtuosity deprived of subtext.

Above: Yunchan Lim’s take on ‘Aria,’ the opening of Bach’s Goldberg Variations, in a December 2024 concert. Credit: YouTube (Encores for Everyone)

Elusive interludes defer familiarity in music – stalling chords or dimming notes to snuff out clichés. Clinching novelties, they spark anticipation. Out of stencils made of signatures and measures, pleasures kindle dreamy mysteries.

In misty straits of rain Hanurij Lee’s piece …Round and velvety-smooth bend made its UK premiere courtesy of Yunchan Lim last night at Wigmore Hall. A noir-like cityscape, it interleaves twin parts ‘Élégie’ and ‘Rudepoema’ to dapple in deluges.

Rolled chords implore a window not to crack from interrupting cadences. Cascades of anxiousness, they stream in hasty semiquavers and deranged attacks. A high-pitched figure stalks a passer-by at both the piece’s start and end – alighting as a menacing alarm. In Lim’s rendition …Round and velvety-smooth bend relayed a 1950s smog-fuelled New York morning, capturing commuters pressed for time. Despite its atmospheric modulations neither sentiments of elegy nor that of its inspirer Heitor Villa-Lobos’ Rudepoêma (‘Savage poem’) appeared palpable.

Prominent appoggiaturas alternated with demure long mordents as Lim journeyed into ‘Aria’: the first part of Bach’s Goldberg Variations. Lending higher notes in its descending trills a gleam, Lim brought a presentational pizzazz.

Sharps and naturals running counter to G major were supremely highlighted in Variation 1, which took a quickened pace. The second brought finesse to final notes in mordents played above the stave. First notes of semiquaver-driven figures stamped panache on the first canon, Variation 3 – which buried bass clef imitations in diminuendo. Staccatos were superbly tackled in the fifth part of the set but pedal presses overstressed the left hand.

Sprightly chords pinged piquantly in Variation 6: slick dashes reminiscent of a bashful debutante attending her first ball. ‘Al tempo di giga’ (‘At the pace of a gigue’), the seventh variation, came out with an overloud and brusque left hand that seemed at times despotic. Veering into Variation 8, Lim’s treble clef experiments prized certain beats at others’ poor expense; awarding accents to the highest notes. Whilst stirring briskness through this style the pianist stripped certain bars of daintiness.

Restrained trills tilted their successive notes to pop voluminously over Variation 10: a technically flawless but bombastic effort. Pulling digits too abruptly off the keys, Lim led us into shier trills through the eleventh variation but the series was soon scrapped to accent top notes.

A canon of immense precision incarnated Variation 12, whose left and right hands formulated mirrors of each other. Teasingly delaying semiquavers in the thirteenth variation, Lim limned a pre-Rococo lady tentative before the offer of a dance. In prancing semiquavers scrambles of the mind unwound in Variation 15’s right hand – though its final D could have been more withheld.

A sizzling trill defined the virtuosity of Variation 16: an array of radiant staccato demisemiquavers. Sparkling with a finite luminosity, descending trills were accented so strongly, they risked falling out of context. Staccato segments in the bass clef were lent equal weight and hammered certain right-hand moments out of hearing. Serial demisemiquavers dripped along the seventeenth instalment in a delicate design of grandiose apologies extended in embarrassment: a characterisation of the period.

Guests were hushed and rushed away to mark the end of balltime in a sprightly haste born in the eighteenth.

Jester-like nevertheless were left-hand patterns in the twentieth, which met undue dynamics. Pounding past the staves, they shuffled treble clef trills urgently away. Despairing ornaments imbued the seventh canon (Variation 21) with solemn respite and the twenty-fourth unravelled two deliciously long trills.

Mourning mordents heralded the diffident adagio of the twenty-fifth Goldberg, whose delayed chords hoarded sombreness. Although the left hand remained tenderly repressed, the right eventually surrendered to explosive plops of figures – leaving little room to the imagination.

Generating electricity in Variation 27, Lim reeled off thrilling trills but let the left hand crudely overemphasise. Accelerated chords were effervescent in the twenty-ninth instalment but the final’s left hand dropped its notes like an invader. A taciturn entreaty was Lim’s reinterpretation of the ‘Aria’: one that assumed descending trills more preciously to underscore their sweetness. Too heavy nonetheless was the performance of the final G, which took an interval to stop.

Deploying Liszt’s Sonetto 104 del Petrarca for a celebratory encore, Lim attacked staccato chords throughout the bass clef, hiding timid right-hand runs. Tied chords and dotted pitches met with formulaic timing; higher notes were offered crowning accents. Lurking like a king, the left hand climbed its climax prematurely – fortifying the ensuing bars with extra forte. Eventually the sceptre passed to Lim’s right hand, which sparkled iridescently but with scant sentiment.

Devoid of treasure hunts for patrons lyrically inclined, this evening was a showcase of refined percussive tricks. Lim’s prowess on the keyboard proved unbeatable but overshadowed music in the process.