Yunchan Lim performs Liszt's 12 Transcendental Études

At just 18 years of age, Yunchan Lim of South Korea became the youngest ever pianist to win the prestigious Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in Fort Worth, Texas, in 2022. Relive every note of his path to victory now on medici.tv!

If Lim's frontrunner status was ever in doubt heading into the semifinals, this was perhaps the moment when his command of the competition became clear. Even the most seasoned pianists would find it a difficult undertaking to perform all twelve of Liszt's Transcendental Études in one sitting; to pull off the feat as part of the pianistic marathon that is the Cliburn, and to put nary a note wrong in this set of supremely challenging works, seems hardly possible. In his Cliburn blog for Gramophone, composer and critic Jed Distler wrote, "my God, he delivered the goods. Indeed, Lim’s intelligent virtuosity and total immersion into Liszt’s idiom truly defined transcendental."