23 years old Hyun-Jung LIM plays Beethoven Piano Sonata Cycle
Beethoven's tempo regained
Paris, Cathédrale Sainte-Croix des Arméniens, 24-30 August 2010. Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) : Beethoven Piano Sonatas Cycle by Hyun-Jung-Lim.
24 october 2010
The Cathédrale Sainte-Croix des Arméniens in Paris' Marais district was the venue chosen by Hyun-Jung Lim to perform Beethoven's complete sonatas during an entire week, August 24 to 30, 2009, with a concert every night. During the entire month of August as well as every weekend of the year, the "Heures Musicales du Marais" concert series organized by Aline Artinian propose concerts aimed at showcasing young artists, and Hyun-Jung Lim's concerts were part of this festival. Those were exceptional concerts for several reasons, first of all due to the program – it is indeed quite uncommon for a pianist to choose to perform Beethoven's complete sonatas, especially when that pianist is a twenty-three years old. But it was exceptional especially for the density of Hyun-Jung Lim's interpretation of the sonata cycle.
For young musicians who consider that "piano competitions have nothing to do with music" and who prefer to concentrate on enhancing their repertoire, Internet remains the best solution for finding a large audience. That is how Hyun-Jung Lim was discovered after excerpts of her performing Chopin's and Rachmaninoff's complete Etudes in one concert evening had been posted on YouTube. Adulated on the Internet and described as a "phenomenal virtuoso," the young artist did not intend to confine herself to the Chopin/Rachmaninoff program and thus took on Beethoven's complete sonata cycle last August in Paris.
Hyun-Jung Lim is one of those rare artists who, far from simply executing a piece with their brilliant technique, do indeed re-create the work. When listening to her version of the sonata cycle – sonatas so famous that their interpretation seems to have become fixed and immutable – the audience in the Armenian Church truly felt like they were hearing something new and unprecedented.
A Mt. Everest of piano literature, Beethoven's sonatas have been performed by the greatest pianists. In his book on Schubert, Philippe Cassard writes about the performing tradition associated with the Beethoven cycle that, "surprisingly professors, wherever they come from and on every occasion, always have something to say about Beethoven's sonatas, about devout structure-tempo-rigor-respect of the score and of what they call style. (…) In Beethoven's case the theories, scholarly analyses, intangible rules are always readily repeated... "* Philippe Cassard justly refers to the importance of tradition for the interpretation of Beethoven's sonatas, a tradition that is practically didactic, and seems to be more concerned with the rational aspect of interpretation – the rigor and reading of the score rather than with the musical meaning and emotional intensity to be found in the pieces.
Hyun-Jung Lim's temperament, combined with her seemingly infinite technical ability and her great feel for musical phrase and architecture, allowed her to deliver a coherent yet totally new interpretation of the sonatas. Having seemingly developed her performance based on a deep analysis of the works, the artist is looking to faithfully render Beethoven's message. Her interpretation explores all the resources of musical expression: in the early sonatas the listener is stunned by the spontaneity and naturalness of the phrasing, achieved through slightly faster tempi than customary (the composer himself indicated tempi such as "allegro", "allegro molto", "presto", and "prestissimo" in his autographs). By attempting to follow the natural enunciation of the phrases Hyun-Jung Lim manages to achieve a discourse that is full of life. The vivacity and occasional humor of certain motifs or harmony changes in the fast movements go side by side with central movements played by the pianist with uncommon emotional density (Sonata Op. 10, No. 3). The strength of her interpretation lies in her attempt to express things as faithfully as possible. Thus, in the Sonata Op. 31, No. 2 ("The Tempest") the pianist takes many risks but does indeed play a "tempest" and such an interpretation inevitably makes the audience listen very attentively, especially when the risks taken with relation to tempo leave the discourse and musical structure perfectly intelligible. Hyun-Jung Lim plays the mature and late sonatas with the same intelligence.
It seems difficult to write a report of a musical performance. However, it is possible to try and explain Hyun-Jung Lim's conception. The novelty of her interpretation is mainly due to the rhythmic conception of the sonatas. The artist herself wants to "respect the natural rhythm of the phrases that can only be modeled on human breathing or on our heartbeat" ... which is admittedly very far from some interpretations that use such slow tempi that it becomes impossible to bear in mind the first notes of the melody drawn out in time by the musician, which is, in my opinion, the biggest interpretation mistake. If music is a language, it is first and foremost a meaning that must be found in the musical phrases.
This interpretation becomes wholly meaningful from the angle of the research done with regard to the interpretation of Beethoven's symphonies. The recent recordings by Mikhail Pletnev, for example, or those by Carlos Kleiber* starting in the 1970s, precisely follow the tempi indicated by the composer, which are generally quicker than those established by a certain tradition. These recordings offer a very different enunciation of the musical phrases – since the harmonic modulations are integrated like so many surprises along the way, the expression becomes strongly contrasted while maintaining its consistency with the rest of the work.
In the piano sonatas Beethoven did not indicate any tempi except for the Sonata Op. 106 ("Hammerklavier") – 1st movement: Allegro molto, white = 138, 4th movement: white = 144. Pianists who followed these indications are few and far between – among the "veterans," the extraordinary Schnabel and the mostly forgotten Solomon, who deserves to be listened to again. Since then, a certain tradition has been established based on strange arguments: this tempo would be too fast, the sonata would be unplayable, the already deaf Beethoven did not know what he was doing or the metronomes of the time were different. Of all these excuses, the "unplayable at that tempo" may be the most pertinent. It is certainly unplayable in a time when we no longer have recordings that recreate a concert atmosphere, but most often a performing artist attempting to recreate the sleek, retouched perfection of a recording, mostly in order to please part of the listeners who already know before the concert what they want to hear.
In Paris, Hyun-Jung Lim scrupulously respected Beethoven's indications. The audience heard a new sonata and leaped up with enthusiasm at the end to congratulate the pianist. Inspired by this newly-found vitality in the sonata "Hammerklavier", Hyun-Jung Lim went on to explore the cycle from that perspective, thus finding herself in the footsteps of another great Beethovenian: Arthur Schnabel.
One can only hope that a Parisian concert hall will offer the young pianist to perform these complete sonatas in a less intimate setting.
Virginie Dejos
* Cassard, Philippe, Franz Schubert, ed. Actes Sud, Classica.
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