Dubbed “Iceland’s Glenn Gould” by the New York Times, Glass, pianist Víkingur Ólafsson has recorded a second concept album for Deutsche Grammophon. Released on 7 September, the simply named Bach features original works by J S Bach, alongside inspired transcriptions by composers including Rachmaninov, Busoni, Kempf and Ólafsson himself. Renowned for his innovative musical projects,…
In April 2015, there was a landmark performance of Philip Glass’s Twenty Études for Piano at London’s Barbican Centre. The composer handpicked four pianists to perform with him, effectively anointing them as exponents of his art. One of these pianists was Vikingur Ólafsson, a brilliant young musician from Iceland. It is this repertoire that Ólafsson…
When Philip Glass handpicked some pianists to perform all of his Etudes together at the Barbican in London last year, Icelandic pianist Víkingur Ólafsson was one of them. The Financial Times claimed: “Best of all was Ólafsson in the supersensitive stillness of Etude 5.” To celebrate the 80th birthday of Philip Glass, Deutsche Grammophon have released a…