[DiaryPoint=Reporter Boyoung Park] Pianist Yunchan Lim performed Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3 with the Philadelphia Orchestra, conducted by Marin Alsop, at Seoul Arts Center’s Concert Hall on November 7. The concerto was the piece that earned him the gold medal in the final of the 2022 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, and the two reunited on a Korean stage.
A review published in Seoul Economic Daily the following day contrasted Lim’s 2022 performance—an electrifying moment shaped by intense focus and spontaneity—with this concert, where he brought a more personal interpretation to the work. The review praised the precision of his phrasing and his clearer sense of the concerto’s larger structure, while noting that he retained his daring and explosive energy in the faster passages.
The performance lasted about 44 minutes. According to the review, Lim introduced the first movement’s opening theme calmly over the bassoon accompaniment, leaving space between notes as he unfolded the melody freely. In the second movement, he handled the low, lyrical exchanges with the woodwinds delicately. The finale built from a tense contest between piano and orchestra to a powerful close.
Alsop’s role was to shape the musical rapport between soloist and orchestra. The review said she turned toward Lim throughout the performance, coordinating their phrasing as they exchanged glances and shaped the music’s tension and release together. The Philadelphia Orchestra, known for its rich sound, was praised for stepping back and giving the piano room to come through.
Lim was 18 when he won the Van Cliburn gold medal in 2022, becoming the youngest winner in the competition’s history. The competition organizers called his performance of Rachmaninoff’s Third a defining moment of that year’s event. Alsop, then chair of the jury, described Lim as “a rare artist who naturally unites profound musicality with extraordinary virtuosity.”
The second half of the Seoul concert featured Richard Strauss’s tone poem Don Juan and Brahms’s Academic Festival Overture. Lim, Alsop, and the Philadelphia Orchestra continued their Korea tour with a November 9 performance at Lotte Concert Hall.