(First published on http://musicians.com.sg. All rights reserved. No part of this may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form without permission in writing from the author.)
Young Artist award winner Lim Yan lived up to his name in his fiery performance this evening which promises to be a preview of greater things to come. The opening prelude Op. 3 No. 2 was the only unsatisfactory item which sounded a little clockwork-like, and could definitely have done with more tonal variation. Op. 23 opened with one of the exquisite melodies that only Rachmaninov could write, which the pianist passionately traced over pleasurably/painfully long arches. Lim Yan’s ability to observe the architectonic lines of the precludes is one aspect of his pianistic brilliance which I am sure must have moved both expert and amateur music lovers. Other highlights from the first half of the concert included the flashy G minor prelude which Lim Yan took at lightning speed, and the elegiac G flat major prelude which concluded Op. 23. Op. 32 provided more extended opportunities for technical display which the pianist exploited to the full. From the expansive E major prelude, to the turbulent F minor prelude, to the bombastic D flat major prelude which concluded the set, Lim Yan performed with finesse, meditation and volcanic energy. He is not one of those pallid, risk adverse pianists flooding the field of professional performance, but one risk taker to look out for in the future. In exchange for the occasional slip, one receives an entire world of the pianist’s creation.
As a concert goer, I would personally have preferred a more varied programme. Such unnecessary musicological completeness (‘complete preludes’), providing the illusion of unity and an atmosphere of methodological scholarliness has the effect of alienating some amateurs, and tiring some experts. (And this is in spite of the tonal linkages between the preludes. Do you seriously expect each successive prelude to slowly add up to an aesthetic whole of 24 keys in the listener’s head over the course of 2 hours?) The era of composer/oeuvre-worship has already met its demise in the academy and one would expect the international field of performance to follow suit soon. Let us celebrate the pianist and not the score.
