Víkingur Ólafsson – Star Pianist of a New Generation

Soloist: Víkingur Ólafsson, piano

Grammy Award–winning Víkingur Ólafsson has recently reached the extraordinary figure of one billion streams across global music platforms and has established himself as a superstar of a new generation at the piano, admired for his crystalline precision and unmistakable musical voice. On the prestigious Deutsche Grammophon label, he has become one of its most high-profile artists, with audiences around the world eagerly awaiting each new release. His most recent recording revolves around Beethoven’s late masterpiece, the Piano Sonata in E major, Op. 109 – a work of explosive expressivity and virtuosity that stands as a landmark of the piano repertoire – which Ólafsson places in dialogue with kindred works by Bach and Schubert. As ever, nothing is left to chance when the Icelandic piano magician takes his place at the keyboard, whether in New York, London, Berlin – or in Tivoli’s beautiful concert hall.

A synaesthete, Víkingur Ólafsson experiences music in colours, and this entire concert is bathed in shimmering shades of green – the colour he associates with the key of E. Schubert’s unjustly overlooked two-movement sonata, Beethoven’s agile and melancholically radiant Piano Sonata in E minor, Op. 90, and not least Bach’s dramatic and boundary-pushing final partita all share this key and a boldly expressive musical language. For Ólafsson, music history is not a series of isolated periods, but a single, flowing stream of inspiration that connects us across centuries. On this special evening, we are invited to step into that ever-changing current of artistic dialogue, guided with assurance by one of today’s most compelling piano artists through a programme of rare and remarkable coherence.

The concert is part of StarPianists and the Stellar Moments Festival.