HJ Lim: ‘I view these sonatas by Beethoven as the most intense diary, in which a genius expresses, or even illustrates, all the facets of a life that is sometimes sublimated and idealized, and often deeply moving by its realism.’

Artists On the Verge 2012

Emphasizing 'The Emotional, Human, Spiritual and Psychological,' HJ Lim Offers a Deeper Examination of Beethoven

The young Korean pianist HJ (Hyun-Jung) Lim's debut recording for EMI Classics is a two-disc set of the Complete Beethoven Piano Sonatas. Recorded on Yamaha's Flagship CFX concert grand piano in July and August 2011, Lim has grouped the sonatas into eight themes including The Eternal Feminine, Assertion of an Inflexible Personality, Resignation and Action, Extremes in Collision and Destiny. She first performed the complete cycle over eight days in Paris during August 2010.

The initial installment in what will become a complete survey of the piano sonatas follows Lim's signing to an exclusive contract with EMI in September 2011. Already an exclusive artist for piano makers Yamaha, the 24-year-old will group the cycle thematically over four double-disc releases during 2012, with a deluxe box set of the complete performances scheduled at the conclusion of the project. The first disc of the first volume is titled Heroic Ideals, and includes the Sonatas Nos. 11, 26, Les Adieux, and 29, Hammerklavier. Its companion disc, The Eternal Feminine Youth, includes the Sonatas Nos. 4, 9, 10, 13, and 14, Moonlight.

Introducing HJ Lim

"A theoretical analysis of Beethoven's sonatas has been done many times; my own emphasizes rather the emotional, human, spiritual and psychological,” Lim says. “This is why I view these sonatas by Beethoven as the most intense diary, in which a genius expresses, or even illustrates, all the facets of a life that is sometimes sublimated and idealized, and often deeply moving by its realism,” Lim says. “To perform Beethoven's sonatas is not just to interpret music, but also an attempt to understand the multi-faceted psychology of a human being. If Beethoven's music can help us understand the human being that he was, so entering Beethoven's life can help us understand his music."

Born in South Korea, Lim emigrated to France aged 12, where she became the youngest person ever to be granted the Diplome d'Etudes Musicales Complete (Normandy), before graduating with First Prize from the Conservatoire National Superieur de Musique de Paris and obtained the "Diplôme de Formation Supérieur,” again, with highest distinctions. While there she studied conducting and was chosen to direct the Orchestre des Lauréats in works including Handel’s Alcina, Schoenberg’s Kammersymphonie Opus 9, Haydn’s Symphony No. 44 and Britten’s Les Illuminations.

Aged 24, with various French competitions under her belt, it seems that Lim's very distance from home was the paradoxical recipe towards her international interest. To keep her family in South Korea updated on her musical progress, Lim uploaded videos of her performances onto YouTube--among the first classical artists to do so. Through a few simple clicks of her mouse, Lim created videos that generated nearly half a million views.

"It's a chance for every artist to share your art, your expression, your music--whatever you want--with everyone in the world," says Lim. "The way of communication is democratized. That's the most important thing there is."

HJ Lim, 'Les Adieux' (III Das Weidersehen), from the s Heroic Ideals CD of the first volume of Complete Beethoven Piano Sonatas

While Lim's contract with EMI Classics was only recently signed, enabling her to enter what she calls “classical music paradise,” her plans to survey the Beethoven piano sonatas have been brewing for some time. In a YouTube video, she describes Beethoven as the first composer she encountered, saying his sonatas were “like friends since my childhood.”

Released last month on Valentine’s Day, Volume 1 of the complete Beethoven piano sonatas has garnered unanimous praise thus far. Appraising the set for the BBC, Daniel Ross praised the young pianist for approaching the music “with invention as much as she does with respect.”

Ross noted: Questions need to be asked before undertaking a complete recording of Beethoven's piano sonatas. For a start: are you going to finish them? Next: what about all the existing recordings slugging it out to be considered top dog? Finally and, undoubtedly, most importantly: what are you going to do to the sonatas that make them different or new again? HJ Lim has answered all these questions quite comfortably with the first installment of her attempt. Intriguingly, though, and presumably in an effort to answer the third question, she's grouped them into themes.

Consequently, we get a first disc that comes under the heading of Heroic Ideals. Which, on the surface of it, doesn't sound like too adventurous a concept when tackling the composer most synonymous with heroism in the classical repertoire. Looking closely as she does though, precedents to Beethoven's later hits are found in the opening Sonata No.29 in B flat--and much fun she has in the joyous left-hand stabs of the final Allegro Risoluto.

Lim's second disc goes under the strange banner of Eternal Feminine Youth and is rather more interesting for it. As she points out in her accompanying essay, Beethoven was fond of the company of women, but this is no series of plinking paeans to the fairer sex. Indeed, kicking off with Sonata No.4 in E flat means that some of that heroic energy spills over beyond its allotted disc. Similarly, the finale to Sonata No.10 is especially sprightly, and the cascading variations of No.14 further escalate the sense of exertion. But how, exactly, are these opuses related to Eternal Feminine Youth, besides being dedicated to a number of Beethoven's female pupils? Perhaps Lim's steely expression on the cover tells us a little more--this is as much about attitude as interpretation.

HJ Lim, Beethoven, 'Moonlight Sonata,' Adagio sostenuto: ‘the finale's thoroughly brutal exposition and subsequent scattergun conclusion are anything but traditionally ladylike, and prove to be this volume's highlight’

Finishing with the dreaded Moonlight Sonata (No.14) seems like the softest way out when you hear its mournful, familiar melodies (expertly accelerated to let out the maximum amount of melody) in the first movement. However, the finale's thoroughly brutal exposition and subsequent scattergun conclusion are anything but traditionally ladylike, and prove to be this volume's highlight. Proving one's chops at such a young age doesn't enter into it--Lim tramples nimbly and with invention as much as she does with respect. Volume two ought to be another triumph.

BEETHOVEN COMPLETE PIANO SONATAS
Volume 1: Heroic Ideals/Eternal Feminine Youth
EMI Classics
Available at www.amazon.com