Concert Hall, Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts /Hong Kong /Mar 15, 2024 /Ernest Wan / In 2022, South Korean pianist Yunchan Lim shot to stardom when he became the youngest-ever winner of the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition at the age of 18. His success has understandably called increased attention to his teacher Minsoo Sohn, and the Hong Kong Arts Festival invited the latter to make his local debut in both concerto and solo performances. His programmes included Rachmaninoff’s Third Concerto and Liszt’s Études d’exécution transcendante, which Lim performed in the Cliburn final and semi-final respectively. Sohn’s Liszt recital was doubly interesting in that the Études figured prominently in the career of his own teacher, Russell Sherman, who died in September 2023. The 47-year-old Sohn began his recital with Liszt’s Consolations, or Six pensées poétiques, intimate pieces that are mostly slow and soft. His playing of the initial chords of the first piece, more deliberate and meditative than usual, right away characterised his rendition of the entire set – these are serious, even pious …