Just Because...

I can't help myself

I don’t even like Liszt. But I love the way Yunchan Lim plays The Mephisto Walz.

I love the way he puts his whole body into it, tossing his hair and kissing his own hands—at least I think that’s what he’s doing—as if he’s just carried away with it all while in total control of it all; the combination of technical rigor and romantic extravagance is gorgeous. I love the way these movements are amplified by the Y Tuber who put the performance together with Murnau’s film; the combination somehow also amplifies the exquisite effeminacy of the lovers, or at least made me notice it more. (Is the pairing of music and movie also a little ridiculous? Perhaps! In the same sense that certain elaborate pastry confections are ridiculously delicious.) The piece is called “hand kisses” in the caption and I think that may have to do with the hand-kissing that goes on in the fragments of the film blurred across images of Lim—but it also seems to refer to the way the pianist “kisses” the keys and perhaps even himself. He was, incidentally, 16 years old when this performance was recorded.

I can only say:

“I am thinking of aurochs and angels, the secret of durable pigments, prophetic sonnets, the refuge of art.” A temporary refuge, yes but a necessary one amid plagues, floods, fire, political violence, war and tragic social idiocy. I look forward to sharing it with you in any small way I can. Among other things.

Illustration of Faust by Harry Clarke, 1925

Happy New Year.