In this, his second DG release, the Icelandic pianist Víkingur Ólafsson has turned to the keyboard music of Bach, and given the quicksilver tempi and digital clarity in his Philip Glass, I was eager to listen. Ólafsson has taken time to formulate his views on Bach, stating that he is a composer who is perpetually undergoing change due to a question of instrument and the individual performer. It is not surprising to discover which pianists helped formulate his approach: Edwin Fischer, Rosalyn Tureck, Gilels and Argerich, not to mention the Canadian maverick Glenn Gould. I fully concur with his idea that while the academics tend to focus on his large-scale and monumental works like the Matthew Passion and the Goldbergs, it’s also equally possible to find such grandeur and mastery within a short keyborad prelude, a fugue or a movement from a cello suite....
Review: Beethoven’s Third Symphony (Víkingur Ólafsson, Sydney Symphony Orchestra)
Víkingur Ólafsson’s glittering Ravel from another dimension is backed by Runnicles at his most colourful and heroic.
Comments
Log in to join the conversation.