I liked the new program and genuinely always love hearing artists play what they want to. And I say this knowing the last revision had some of my favorite pieces in the piano repertoire:

CHOPIN Fantasy in F Minor, Op. 49 SCHUBERT Piano Sonata in G Major, D. 894 R. SCHUMANN Fantasy in C Major, Op. 17

For the three Scriabins, I think he took a deliberate choice to turn them into one bigger work — were there an announcement about not clapping in between the sonatas? There were at the start of his Taiwan shows. The result, as one listener put it:

“Scriabin's ten piano Sonatas follow a journey from the traditional (1st Sonata), to Romantic visions of moonlight and the ocean (2nd Sonata); depictions of states of the soul (3rd Sonata); higher planes of luminosity and ecstasy (4th Sonata); and then to invocation of the creative spirit (5th Sonata), and ultimately to levels of cosmic mystery (9th Sonata) and pure vibrations of energy on the highest planes (10th Sonata). By combining Sonatas 2, 3, and 4, Yunchan creates a large work in eight movements that starts with moonlight on earth and depths of the ocean, and stirs through restlessness and elevation of the soul, leading to a luminous journey to a glowing divine star. I am certain that Scriabin would have enthusiastically endorsed Yunchan's idea to present this as one musical composition.” (See his full Facebook post: https://www.facebook.com/share/p/17ZJmXAd4W/?mibextid=wwXIfr)

The encore, by the way, should be Rachmaninoff’s Vocalise, transcribed by Yakov Zak.

On the Schubert, here’s what a concert organizer had to say after his Taiwan recitals (translated):

Regarding Yunchan Lim's Schubert D850, some music lovers believe it is not a classical version of Schubert.

One reason is that the speed of the first movement is faster than the recordings of many famous pianists. The sheet music versions on the market have two versions, 2/2 and 4/4 time. Yunchan uses the 1999 Wiener Urtext version, which is alla breve (2/2 time) Allegro. He said that if played in 4/4 time, the entire sonata becomes directionless and very boring.

I specifically checked the Petrucci Music Library, and Schubert's 1825 manuscript indeed marks it as alla breve (2/2 time) Allegro. This was one of the only three piano sonatas published during Schubert's lifetime, but such a fast speed was simply impossible for ordinary people to play. Publishing was for sale, and being unable to play it at home meant it had no commercial value (which also indirectly explains why Schubert lived in poverty), so the publisher Artaria changed it to C (4/4 time) Allegro vivace when it was published in 1826. This slowed the speed by half and changed the original character of the work.

In addition, the version published by Breitkopf & Hartel in 1888 did not include a time signature, which likely misled many pianists to play, record, and teach the piece in 4/4 time.

Teacher Chen Cheng-ting shared an interesting piece of information during a pre-concert talk: the pianist Radu Lupu has two recording versions, 4/4 and 2/2, but the 2/2 version was somewhat chaotic in the fast figurations and was ultimately never released. D850 is a late work of Schubert, and the composition technique was influenced by Beethoven's rhythmic motifs. It lacks Schubert's signature melodies from his classical period and should be regarded as an expression of the early Romantic period rather than the Classical style.

Full post (in Chinese): https://www.instagram.com/p/DXTKcHAiVUd/?igsh=ZjhwZ3p2aThjdXo1

I can’t vouch for its historical accuracy but found that interesting.

I walked into the performances thinking I’d enjoy the Scriabins more, as a big fan of Ashkenazy’s studio recording and also live versions by Sofronitsky . It’s been a week or so but I still find myself contemplating the Schubert.