The Works

Welcome to The Works, the playlist featuring the latest and best from the world of classical music. Our editors highlight the week’s top releases, including gripping performances of well-known works by both established and emerging musical talents. This week’s headline track features pianist Yunchan Lim, who brings expressive and playful beauty to a movement from Tchaikovsky’s The Seasons, the composer’s 1876 piano suite depicting each month of the year with often disarming simplicity. Here, we encounter the “white nights” of May, Tchaikovsky welcoming the long days of late spring with perhaps the suite’s most tranquil and endearing movement. “These pieces bring back forgotten feelings from deep within the heart,” Yunchan Lim tells Apple Music Classical, “memories that briefly return to the present, only to blur and fade again.” In this track, we encounter the “white nights” of May, Tchaikovsky welcoming the long days of late spring in perhaps the suite’s most tranquil and endearing movement. For Yunchan Lim, the movement conjures up vivid images of nature, and a sweet encounter between two young children. “I imagine someone painting the sky with a mysterious watercolor,” he says, “and in the middle section, I see a little boy—maybe five years old—bringing a small yellow flower to a girl. But the girl doesn’t kiss him on the cheek, so he gets upset.” Don’t forget that we regularly update The Works, so if you find a piece of music or a performance you particularly love, be sure to add it to your library.