Music |
Víkingur Ólafsson
By
Published: Apr 26, 2021
Category:
Classical
Glenn Gould, move over. There’s a new kid on the block. Víkingur Ólafsson has been described as “Iceland’s Glenn Gould,” which is both accurate and critical shorthand. But it’s not hype.
Ólafsson is young, born in 1984. He was launched with a big push from Deutsche Grammophon. His concerts are confounding: the mastery, the speed. And the intensity, which is supplemented by his synesthesia. He associates keys with colors — F minor is blue, A major is yellow, and B major is purple — so music is a kind of light show for him. In a time of no concerts, it’s the CDs that have propelled him to a level of stardom that can only explode when concerts are possible again. This reader review on Amazon will suggest the devotion he generates:
My 10-day-old newborn is sleeping in my arms, Vikingur Olafsson’s interpretation of Philip Glass’ ‘Opening’ is playing in my headphones, and for all of seven minutes and forty-four seconds the world is standing still but for the music and the colors of autumn at the window and the comforting warmth in my lap and my flowing tears.
Philip Glass was an excellent choice for Ólafsson. Glass composes for theater and opera and films — his scores have received three Academy Award nominations — and he has collaborated with Paul Simon and Leonard Cohen, among others, but he is essentially a composer who writes for the piano. And records as a pianist. An enormous output for a man who drove a cab in New York until he was in his 40s.
His signature is repetition, and the shifts he can create from that structure. It’s light years from boring. I listened to a Glass opera on WQXR while I was driving; it hadn’t ended when I reached my destination, so I sat in the car until it did. Etude No. 5 is short. When I heard it in the car, I raised the volume and closed the sunroof.
Here’s the trailer for “Philip Glass: Piano Works.”
Here’s Etude No. 13:
And here’s a critical favorite, Etude No. 5:
[To buy the CD of “Philip Glass: Piano Works” from Amazon, click here. To buy the MP3 download, click here. To buy the download of Etude No. 5, click here.]
But wait… there’s more. Ólafsson’s Bach CD was named record of the year by the BBC Music Magazine. That’s a steep mountain to summit so early in a pianist’s career — especially for a pianist who chooses to record Bach’s shorter pieces, none longer than five and a half minutes, a few under a minute. Like a pop album? “I started thinking about how I listen to music,” he says. “I listen to it in the concert hall in a very different way to listening to it at home on headphones or on speaker while I’m cooking or commuting or whatever.”
As for the “difficulty” of classical music, he’ll have none of that: “Everyone knows how to listen to music, just like we know how to drink water. You just listen and then you like it or you don’t. Sure, you still do meet people from your parents’ generation who think classical music is stuck up and snobby, but the real elitists are the ones paying £500 for a Stones ticket. Everything is contemporary music if it’s played today.”
Here’s the trailer to the Bach CD:
Here’s a stunning 1 minute 26 seconds of Bach:
[To buy the Bach CD from Amazon, click here.]
Víkingur Ólafsson. A name to remember. Music to cherish. And share.
