Yunchan Lim plays Chopin

The latest new release I am featuring is another solo piano album: Yunchan Lim's recent album of Chopin Etudes, Op.10 and Op. 25. It was the one album, amongst many other potential ones, that truly piqued my interest, when I saw it amongst the list of newly released classical music albums, this week - not least because of the youth and the fame that this pianist has enjoyed, ever since he broke onto the worldwide musical stage, two years ago, with THAT live performance of Rachmaninov's Third Piano Concerto.

I enjoyed listening to this album. The youngest winner of the van Cliburn Piano Competition, in 2022 (at the age of only 18) - and recording this album one year later, at 19, at the same age when Chopin himself wrote these etudes - shows impressive technical command, here, coupled with beautiful tone and his own brand of understated, but ever present, musicality. His tone is indeed beautiful, his precision extraordinary, his sense of timing is alike clockwork. I just wished for a little more variety, in the dynamic colour spectrum, as well as in the timing … perhaps more subtle shades of dynamic colours, coupled with a little more give-and-take in his very precise style of playing, would help us relate more to Chopin's meaning, behind the notes? Who knows. It feels a little too "perfect", to me ... and human emotion (of which Chopin is a master at translating it into stunning music) is characterised, firstly and foremostly, by imperfection. I also have a feeling that Mr Lim may well have a different approach to these pieces in 20 or 30 years' time … nevertheless, this is a very impressive album, from many angles and points of view - to my ears, at least.