Every pianist lives in dialogue with the past…some more than others. For Yunchan Lim, the youngest-ever winner of the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, that dialogue stretches back for generations.

Yunchan Lim

Across multiple interviews, Lim has often spoken about the pianists who have inspired him the most.

His list reaches across eras and genres: Italian visionary Ferruccio Busoni, poetic Alfred Cortot, the luminous Clara Haskil, the defiant Maria Yudina, and even jazz titan Oscar Peterson.

He also names living artists like Mikhail Pletnev and Arcadi Volodos, whose daring interpretations continue to shape his own musical imagination.

As he once told Gramophone, “These pianists are maybe not so familiar to the general public, but I strongly recommend that young artists like me should listen to them.”

In 2023, Yunchan Lim curated a playlist for Apple Classical of some of his favourite Golden Age pianists, and we’ve already covered those.

Today, we’re looking at some of the other musicians who didn’t make that Apple Classical playlist, but whose playing Lim has also praised.

Ferruccio Busoni (1866–1924)

1920s recordings of Ferruccio Busoni

Ferruccio Busoni was an Italian pianist-composer who was one of the towering keyboard figures around 1900. He dazzled audiences across Europe with a wide repertoire that extended from Bach to Liszt.

He also wrote a number of influential piano works. His transcriptions of the Bach organ works in particular are staples of the repertoire.

Ferruccio Busoni

In May 2024, Yunchan Lim told Gramophone magazine that Busoni is among the great pianists he admires.

He told the interviewer:

“I first started listening to the great names when I was 13. My teacher recommended I listen to [Ignaz] Friedman. I was walking home on my way back from school, and I was electrified. Shocked. I just stood there on the road amazed by the freedom of the playing and then felt almost remorse about my own playing. That was the moment when I became determined to improve my playing… And Busoni playing Chopin.”

Here are some Chopin performances by Busoni that so struck a youthful Lim:

Fryderyk Chopin: Polonaise No. 6 in A-Flat Major, Op. 53, “Heroic” (Ferruccio Busoni, piano)

Fryderyk Chopin: Nocturne No. 5 in F-Sharp Major, Op. 15, No. 2 (Ferruccio Busoni, piano)

Fryderyk Chopin: 24 Preludes, Op. 28: No. 15 in D-Flat Major, “Raindrop” (Ferruccio Busoni, piano)

It’s worth noting that the teacher who told him to listen to older recordings is Minsoo Sohn. Minsoo Sohn was a pupil of Russell Sherman, who was a pupil of Eduard Steuermann, who was a pupil of…Ferruccio Busoni!

Discover more about the life of Ferruccio Busoni.

Alfred Cortot (1877–1962)

Brief excerpts of Cortot’s Chopin playing

Alfred Cortot was a Franco-Swiss pianist famed for his insight into Romantic piano works.

As a leading pianist of the early twentieth century, Cortot was especially renowned for interpretations of Chopin, Schumann, and Franck.

He often emphasised expression and rubato over note-perfect accuracy.

Alfred Cortot

Lim has cited Cortot as a major musical inspiration.

Lim has also played a stunning solo arrangement of Bach’s Harpsichord Concerto No. 5 in F-minor by Cortot, which he is currently performing as an encore.

Yunchan Lim: BACH, Harpsichord Concerto No. 5 in F minor, BWV 1056 (Arr. Alfred Cortot)

Find out why Alfred Cortot was so interested in conducting.

Clara Haskil (1895–1960)

Clara Haskil

Clara Haskil was a Romanian-born pianist who became legendary for her crystalline playing of Classical Era and Early Romantic works.

She was renowned as an interpreter of Mozart above all: many listeners consider her Mozart concerto recordings as some of the most beautiful ones ever made.

Despite belonging to a very different generation, Yunchan Lim immediately praised Clara Haskil during an interview with the Guardian in July 2024, citing her as one of the most influential pianists he’s ever heard (along with Mikhail Pletnev and Arcadi Volodos).

Lim’s devotion to the art has been called “monk-like” by more than one commentator. There are connections here to the humility of Haskil’s sensitive approach to music-making.

We wrote an article about Clara Haskil’s extraordinary life. Learn more about how she overcame a number of major obstacles during her life, including the time when she played piano during brain surgery.

Maria Yudina (1899–1970)

Maria Yudina

Maria Yudina was a Russian pianist famed for her uncompromising artistic integrity and spiritual depth.

An outspoken Orthodox Christian in the age of Stalin, Yudina survived in Soviet music circles against all odds.

As a pianist, Yudina was a virtuoso with a fiercely individual style. She viewed music in practically mystical terms, and always “played as though giving a sermon,” according to Shostakovich.

Yudina’s playing sometimes sacrificed polish for passion, but it was full of conviction and profundity…traits often associated with Lim’s playing today.

Interestingly, her teacher, Felix Blumenfeld, also taught another of Lim’s idols, Vladimir Horowitz.

Here’s an excerpt from a Lim profile in the Times in March 2024:

He first started buying CDs of pianists when he was a child, and is in no doubt about which ones he prefers. “Russian pianists of the old school,” he says. “People like Horowitz, Maria Yudina [a brave dissident who defied Stalin] and Vladimir Sofronitsky [whose playing was revered inside Russia but almost unknown outside]. All of them have influenced me.”

Why is that? “I think because they lived through very difficult times, felt the pain of all that, and expressed it clearly in how they played. Compared with many of today’s pianists, these people had such distinctive voices.”

Oscar Peterson (1925–2007)

The Oscar Peterson Trio’s “Salute to Bach”

Oscar Peterson was a Canadian jazz pianist often regarded as one of jazz’s most influential giants.

Nicknamed the “Maharaja of the Keyboard” by Duke Ellington, Peterson possessed a virtuosic technique on par with the classical greats. He was especially famous for his blistering runs.

Lim’s love of piano transcends genre, and he has singled out Oscar Peterson (alongside Art Tatum) as a major inspiration.

Oscar Peterson

In 2024, Yunchan told the Guardian, “I love to explore the way those two pianists played, their touch, their freedom of expression.”

Here is a tribute to Oscar Peterson for his hundredth birthday.

Mikhail Pletnev (1957–)

Pletnev plays Glinka/Balakirev’s The Lark

In that same article, Lim hails Mikhail Pletnev, Haskil, and Volodos as three of the pianists who have influenced him.

Mikhail Pletnev is a well-known Russian pianist (as well as conductor and composer).

He won the Gold Medal at the 1978 Tchaikovsky Competition at just 21, launching a major international career. (Of course, this is a striking parallel to Lim, who won the gold medal at the Cliburn at the age of 18, launching a major international career.)

Mikhail Pletnev

He is known for taking interpretive risks that reveal fresh perspectives on familiar works.

Lim and Pletnev have teamed up together as soloist and conductor. Here’s their joint performance of Beethoven’s Fifth Piano Concerto.

Read about why Mikhail Pletnev was nicknamed “the devil from Moscow”.

Arcadi Volodos (1972–)

Volodos plays Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1

The last pianist in Lim’s trio of influential performers – Haskil, Pletnev, and Volodos – is Arcadi Volodos, a Russian-born pianist known for mind-boggling virtuosity and a rich, soulful musicality.

Early in his career, Volodos stunned audiences with jaw-dropping Liszt and Rachmaninoff performances (his live recording of Rachmaninoff’s third concerto with the Berlin Philharmonic is legendary).

Of course, this is especially fascinating since Lim gave an electric recital of Liszt’s Transcendental Etudes and Rachmaninoff’s third concerto while competing at the Cliburn Competition.

Arcadi Volodos

It’s also noteworthy that Volodos is one of the few pianists born after 1970 that Lim has ever cited as an inspiration.

Learn more about Volodos’s life and career, including his shocking confession that he never really practiced his scales as a child.

Conclusion

Yunchan Lim’s favourite pianists reveal the depth of his musical roots.

From Ferruccio Busoni’s visionary intellect to Clara Haskil’s luminous touch to Maria Yudina’s defiant intensity, these artists represent the Golden Age of piano playing that Lim so deeply admires.

It’s exciting that such a popular pianist is bringing this kind of attention to so many unfairly neglected pianists from the past.

Which of these pianists is your favourite? Which ones do you hear in Yunchan Lim’s playing?

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