Luminous display

Jung Lin returns to Lincoln Center,
reviewed by ANNA FRANCO

What is most striking about Jung Lin's performances is her luminous display of personal favorites.

At her most recent recital at New York's Alice Tully Hall, 2 December 2005, Miss Lin performed a program that included some of the most intense selections of Romantic music: Paderewski: Theme and Variations Op 16 No 3; Brahms: Four Piano Pieces Op 119; Medtner: Sonata-Ballade Op 27; Liszt: Bénédiction de Dieu dans la solitude; and Rachmaninoff: Six Moments Musicaux Op 16. Her lyrical performance radiated the glowing strength and the intricate beauty of that era. Miss Lin's program notes included her own thoughts about these pieces and some historical background.

The Paderewski Theme and Variations are light, lovely, and lyrical with a Baroque-like quality. The Brahms Four Piano Pieces added weight to the first half of the program, using the strength of Brahms' later piano solos to establish the momentum of the performance. Medtner has become a constant in Miss Lin's recitals; his Sonata-Ballade Op 27 uses melodies embedded in an elaborate structure. Bénédiction de Dieu dans la solitude by Franz Liszt is a seamless whirl of thrilling pianism. Finally, the Six Moments Musicaux of Rachmaninoff gave the recital the final seal of chromaticism. Miss Lin had two encores, one of which was a piano arrangement of The Swan by Saint-Saëns.

Jung Lin, a native of Taiwan, studied at Juilliard, and lives in New York City. At her July 2005 recital at the International Keyboard Institute Festival at Mannes School, she alternated between two composers, Medtner and Mendelssohn, in a musical manifestation of warmth and intelligence.

If there was ever any doubt about the future of Romanticism in music, then Jung Lin's performance at Lincoln Center should reaffirm its continued vitality.