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| Standing ovation for Lim at the Orpheum |
He was in Vancouver today to perform for a concert put on by the Vancouver Recital Society at the Orpheum Theatre and not surprisingly most of the people in the audience were South Korean!
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| Youngest Van Cliburn winner at 18 |
On stage he looks even younger than 20, and is painfully shy, partly because he doesn't speak much English, and suddenly becoming famous must surely be overwhelming.
The concert program started with contemporary composer Hanurij Lee's piece "... Round and velvety-smooth blend..." which sounded like raindrops. It was a very short piece of about five minutes and Lim left little time for the audience to react when he immediately launched right into JS Bach's Goldberg Variations, which consists of an aria and 30 variations.
Lim played all of them in succession, with a lot of expressive range, from conservative and quiet for the aria, which built up to tremendous energy and movement for the 30th and last variation, and then back to the soft delicate notes of the aria again.
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| Lim receiving bouquets from fans |
Needless to say as soon as he finished playing his last note, the audience jumped to their feet and clapped and whooped loudly. Lim came out three or four times, bowing, and fans rushed to the stage to give him several bouquets of flowers, and even a teddy bear which he placed in the piano as he played an encore (Liszt). He didn't even wait for the crowd to sit down when he started playing his encore piece.
He leaves tomorrow morning for New York to play at Carnegie Hall and then back to South Korea for more concerts.
It is clear that music is the medium through which Lim communicates with the world; he feels right at home with the instrument. At only 20 years old -- 21 later this month -- Lim is definitely one to watch in the years ahead.
Yunchan Lim
Hanurij Lee ... Round and velvety smooth blend...
JS Bach Goldberg Variations
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