Pianists like Yunchan Lim are rare, and it was clear he was the star attraction at the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra’s BBC Prom concert with Music Director Kazuki Yamada. The audience waited with bated breath for Lim’s entrance, the atmosphere electric. But first, they had to anticipate his arrival through the evening’s opening work, John Adams’ The Chairman Dances.
The piece is unmistakably Adams: metallic textures, pulsating rhythms, motoric energy. Despite the mechanical edge of minimalism, Yamada found genuine expression, ranging from excitement to sultry tension and frenzied dance. His interpretation was both insightful and communicative. The orchestra maintained excellent balance, ensuring the bass undercurrent of the textures always came through. In the central section, Yamada shifted the orchestral palette from rich and warm to cool and austere. The final passage juxtaposed sonorous strings with brittle percussion and the chiming of the piano’s upper register. Gently losing momentum before fading to a fitting close, Yamada held the silence beautifully.
When the piano was positioned and the Prommers gave their customary “heave-ho” as the lid was raised, the welcome for Lim was ecstatic. He performed Rachmaninov’s Fourth Piano Concerto — the often-overlooked sibling of the Second and Third — in only its ninth Proms appearance. From the opening flourish, his love for the piece shone through. His phrasing displayed expressive depth and technical brilliance, making it clear this would be a performance to remember. Rapid passages were delivered with nimble dexterity; in the more introspective moments of the Allegro vivace, he showed tenderness without sentimentality.
An alarm in the hall caused a pause after the first movement, during which Yamada briefly left the platform. On returning, he and Lim launched straight into the second movement, both seemingly unfazed by the hiatus. Lim cast an enchanting spell in the Largo, drawing a rich spectrum of colour from the Steinway. In the Allegro vivace finale, he dazzled with virtuosic flair. Both he and Yamada were completely unified in their vision, and the roar from the Prommers testified to an exceptional performance. Lim returned to the stage to offer Korngold’s Schönste Nacht from Die stumme Serenade as a lyrical encore.
After the interval, the 20th century was revisited once more. Following the minimalism of the 80s and the romanticism of the 40s came something entirely different from the 60s: Luciano Berio’s Sinfonia. Less immediately accessible than the earlier works, it invited the audience to listen differently. Like the Adams, Yamada handled its complex textures and expressive demands with confidence. He was joined by eight voices from the BBC Singers, and together they delivered a formidable performance: the first movement ethereal and brooding; the Webern-like second had striking clarity. The third movement, with its collage of quotations, resembled a surreal fairground ride – Mahler and Berio layered with uncanny ease. The final movement faded into a transcendent stillness. The BBC Singers shone with flexibility and virtuosity, bringing Berio’s kaleidoscopic vision vividly to life.
This was a programme full of musical sound worlds from the last century that were light years apart. With such exceptional musicianship from Yamada, Lim and the BBC Singers – and the astonishing playing of the CBSO – they stitched this patchwork of styles into a coherent and truly astounding evening.
