When the 18-year-old Yunchan Lim announced his semi-final programme at the 2022 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition – Liszt’s complete Études d’exécution transcendante – there was a collective gasp of expectation. This was the ultimate in risk and reward. Indeed, that element of risk, the danger of a high wire without a safety net, is essential to Liszt’s conception. The performance was a triumph technically and musically – to play this work in this manner in a major competition setting was a statement that grabbed worldwide attention – and the recording was later issued by Steinway & Sons.

It wasn’t a one-off. An equally impressive Rachmaninov Third Concerto followed, and Decca soon secured Lim’s signature; his studio album of Chopin’s Études was our Recording of the Month in May. It is unprecedented for a pianist to have two albums shortlisted in the same year of the Gramophone Awards, but Yunchan Lim’s Liszt and Chopin, issued at either end of the qualifying period, not only made the shortlist but were separated by a single vote at the top of a dauntingly competitive category.

Now 20, Yunchan Lim is a pianist whose flair and probing musicianship are supported by a phenomenal technique. This comes to the fore in the Liszt, of course, enabling the notorious leaps and double notes of ‘Feux follets’ to dance ecstatically while ‘Wilde Jagd’ becomes a thrillingly furious ride into the abyss. Yet Yunchan’s pianism is not solely about technique: the poetry of Liszt’s slower Études, notably ‘Harmonies du soir’, and the highly personal imaginative touches that are a feature of his outstanding Chopin Études are hallmarks of an exploratory young artist with much to say and consummate means with which to say it. Tim Parry

The Recording

Liszt Études d’exécution transcendante, S139

Yunchan Lim pf

Steinway & Sons (9/23)

Read the review | Buy or stream on Presto Music

Explore all of this year's Gramophone Award winners in the 2024 Awards issue – out now. Never miss an issue – subscribe today