Yunchan Lim presents Bach’s Goldberg Variations 'Live at Carnegie Hall’
The once-in-a-generation pianist offers a deeply personal vision of Bach’s masterpiece as “a journey of life in music” (Yunchan Lim)
Decca Classics today announces Yunchan Lim: Bach, Goldberg Variations ‘LIVE AT CARNEGIE HALL’, released on 6th February 2026. The full concert film will be available on STAGE+ and Carnegie Hall+ starting from February 6th.
Revered for its technical complexity and emotional depth, the (nearly) 300-year-old solo keyboard masterpiece is an established peak for any concert pianist to conquer.
Here Yunchan Lim does just this, with his fourth album since signing with Decca Classics in October 2023. This landmark Carnegie Hall live recording offers a deeply personal vision of Bach’s famous work, and is something Lim has thought about for most of his life so far.
Lim describes the Goldbergs as “a journey of life in music — from the first opening of our eyes in the Aria, through thirty deeply human variations, to the final Aria, when our eyes gently close.” He reminisces, “The first time I heard Bach’s Goldberg Variations was when I was eight years old and I discovered a box set of Glenn Gould’s Bach recordings. When I first listened to it, I was amazed by its grandeur and beauty, and it has remained close to my heart ever since. I’ve dreamt of releasing this piece as a live album from Carnegie Hall.”
Executive and Artistic Director of Carnegie Hall, Sir Clive Gillinson, explains in the album sleeve-notes, “Following Yunchan’s winning performance at the Cliburn Competition, our artistic planning team made one of our easiest decisions ever in immediately offering him a solo recital in our main hall… We knew we were listening to a very special artist at the start of what will undoubtedly be an extraordinary career, an artist who will bring inspiration to audiences worldwide for a very long time.”
Lim’s interpretation of the Goldbergs has already captivated audiences worldwide and garnered glowing reviews. The Guardian praised his Wigmore Hall performance of the piece for its “youthful vibrancy with interpretative maturity” and the Financial Times noted his “intellectual precision, baroque elegance, expressive balance and virtuosic flair”. Internationally, El País reports that it is “considered by many as the best version of this work currently available.”
Since becoming the youngest-ever winner at the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in 2022 aged 18, where his electrifying performance of Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3 moved conductor Marin Alsop to tears, Lim’s rise has been meteoric.
His debut studio recording, Chopin Études (Decca Classics, 2024) made history at the BBC Music Magazine Awards 2025 as the first artist to take home three awards for one recording. The album also went quadruple Platinum in Korea, won the Diapason d’or de l’année in France and topped charts internationally. The Guardian described it as “The most thrilling pianistic debut of the last decade.”
Lim’s second Decca release, his live recording of Rachmaninoff No. 3 (Decca Classics, 2025), the landmark Cliburn performance, is now the most-watched version of the concerto on YouTube with over 17 million views. The Times said Lim is “a pianist in complete command of his instrument” with The Guardian calling it a recording that “deserves a place alongside Argerich and Rachmaninov himself.” His third album, Tchaikovsky’s The Seasons (Decca Classics, 2025), was praised for its sincerity and vision, with the Financial Times declaring, “this new recording edges into the number one spot.” and Gramophone writing, “Few if any young pianists have shown such unfaltering assurance and never more so than when going against the conventional grain.”
Lim’s concert appearances have confirmed his standing as a global phenomenon, with sold-out debuts at Carnegie Hall, Wigmore Hall, and the BBC Proms 2024 at The Royal Albert Hall. His NPR Tiny Desk Concert has garnered a million views, with NPR commenting on his “powerful command of every note” and that he made their upright piano sound like a concert grand, adding, “Lim will be enchanting listeners for a long time.”
LIVE:
Lim’s 2025–26 season includes a series of high-profile engagements across the United States, Europe, and Asia. He performs at Santa Cecilia Hall, Rome (13–15 Nov) and Taipei’s National Theater and Concert Hall (25 Nov), before returning to Chicago (18–20 Dec). Early 2026 brings concerts at Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw (15 & 18 Jan), Konzerthaus Dortmund (16 Jan), Kulturpalast Dresden (21 Jan), and Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles (12–15 Feb). March sees three Paris appearances at the Philharmonie and Cité de la Musique (11–13 Mar), followed by Boston’s Symphony Hall (19–22 Mar), Carnegie Hall, New York (24 Apr), Seoul Arts Center (12 May), Wigmore Hall, London (29 May), and finally Gewandhaus Leipzig (18–21 Jun).
The full concert film of Yunchan Lim: Bach, Goldberg Variations ‘LIVE AT CARNEGIE HALL’ will be available on STAGE+ and Carnegie Hall+ starting from February 6th 2026.
