Yunchan Lim
At the age of eighteen, pianist Yunchan Lim won the renowned Van Cliburn International Piano Competition as the youngest participant ever. Enthusiastic critics speak of 'magical' and 'instinctive' playing. In 2024, Lim recorded his first CD for Decca, Chopin's Études , an album that won numerous awards. This was followed by Rachmaninoff, Tchaikovsky, and Bach: repertoire that speaks volumes about the broad interests of this young South Korean star. Tonight, he makes his debut in the Great Pianists series with sonatas by Mozart, himself a brilliant pianist.
Mozart
The European monarchs were astonished when the seven-year-old Mozart performed at their courts. He was already a brilliant young pianist at that time, performing his own compositions and reading flawlessly from sheet music. During long journeys, his father Leopold exploited him as a child prodigy; Mozart himself found the encounters with constantly different people all too enjoyable. He wrote his first piano sonatas at the age of nineteen, but he must have improvised dozens before that. When you experience the sonatas consecutively, you hear Mozart's development as a man and a composer: his craftsmanship remains superior, but his expressive power deepens even further.