©Photo: Markus Jans

©Photo: Ari Magg

©Photo: Ari Magg

Víkingur Ólafsson

Piano

Home
Reviews
Features
Discography

“breathtakingly brilliant pianist”
(Gramophone, March 2017)

Icelandic pianist Víkingur Ólafsson has captured public and critical imagination to become one of the most sought-after artists of today. His recordings have led to over one billion streams and he has won numerous awards, including BBC Music Magazine Album of the Year, Opus Klassik Solo Recording of the Year (twice) and a Grammy nomination for Best Classical Instrumental Solo. Other notable honours include Rolf Schock Music Prize, Gramophone’s Artist of the Year, and Musical America’s Instrumentalist of the Year, the Order of the Falcon (Iceland’s order of chivalry) as well as the Icelandic Export Award, given by the president of Iceland.

In a landmark move, Ólafsson devoted his entire 2023/24 season to a world tour of a single work: J.S.Bach’s Goldberg Variations, performing it 88 times to great critical acclaim. The 2024/25 season will see Ólafsson as Artist-in-Residence with Tonhalle Zürich and Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, as well as Artist-in-Focus at Vienna Musikverein. He will tour in Europe with The Cleveland Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra and Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, perform with the Berliner Philharmoniker at the BBC Proms and return to the New York Philharmonic. He joins forces with Yuja Wang for a highly anticipated two piano recital tour across Europe and North America and, in January 2025, will give the world premiere of John Adams’ After the Fall with San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, a piano concerto written especially for him. In spring 2025, Ólafsson will perform his new piano recital, the last three sonatas of Beethoven on multiple dates across the US and Europe.

HarrisonParrott represents Víkingur Ólafsson for worldwide general management.

Víkingur Ólafsson – Bach: Organ Sonata No. 4, BWV 528: II. Andante [Adagio] (Transcr. Stradal) © Deutsche Grammophon - DG

Víkingur Ólafsson – Rameau: Les Boréades: The Arts and the Hours (Transcr. Ólafsson) © Deutsche Grammophon - DG

Víkingur Ólafsson – Glass: Étude No. 5 © Deutsche Grammophon - DG

Víkingur Ólafsson – Galuppi: Piano Sonata No. 9 in F Minor: I. Andante spiritoso © Deutsche Grammophon - DG

“following in Busoni’s footsteps as a Bach transcriber”

(Record Review BBC Radio 3, 19 Oct 2024)

“There’s something about his touch. It’s soft but also commanding. He lets the music sing. It feels really natural.”

(Record Review BBC Radio 3, 19 Oct 2024)

“…a magical touch in this music”

(Record Review BBC Radio 3, 19 Oct 2024)

“There’s something really special about the way he plays Bach.”

(Record Review BBC Radio 3, 19 Oct 2024)

“Víkingur Ólafsson is revitalising classical music”

(The Economist June 2020)

“The new superstar of classical piano”

(The Telegraph, April 2020)

“For this pianist, every album is an essay”

(The New York Times, March 2020)

“Vikingur Ólafsson explored a fascinating sound cosmos in an amazingly unpretentious and effortless performance. Played with passion and yet gentleness, with breath-taking precision and unconditional devotion, creating an interpretation of lasting impact.”

(Thüringer Allgemeine, April 2019)

“Olafssons hands are fast and powerful on the keys (think superfast, then add some more). His performance is earth-shaking and hypnotic, in short – he plays like a master.”

(Arbetarbladet, March 2019)

“There’s a quiet fearlessness to this album … Mr. Olafsson is a master of finding and exploiting unexpected pockets of musicality.”

(New York Times, December 2018)

“Víkingur Ólafsson’s latest album opens the door to new possibilities for the great composer’s music.”

(BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE, Recording of the Year Christmas 2018)

“Bach at the keyboard has rarely sounded so fresh, expressive and joyous.”

(SUNDAY TIMES CULTURE, Classical Album of the Week, December 2018)

“For Bach playing of a higher order, there is only one place to go: the recent album by Víkingur Ólafsson.”

(THE TIMES 5* review, November 2018)

“Ólafsson’s “inspired playing makes Bach more human than we’ve heard in a long time”

(SUDDEUTSCHE ZEITUNG, December 2018)

“After his equally successful Glass album, Víkingur confirms he’s one of the pianists to look out for”

(CLASSICA 5* review, November/December 2018)

“Ólafsson combines the fantasy of Maria João Pires and Martha Argerich with the contrapuntal élan of Piotr Anderszewski. But he is very much his own man.”

(GRAMOPHONE Editor’s Choice, November 18)

“Does he really deserve the epithet “Icelands Glenn Gould” that the New York Times gave him? The answer is yes, he proved as a time-bending soloist in Edvard Grieg’s piano concerto. This classic from the romantic period sounds in the wrong hands overblown and sentimental, but Ólafsson plays as if every tone matters”

(Nicholas Ringskog Ferrada-Noli, Dagens nyheter, October 2017)

“We came to hear the prodigious interpreter of Philip Glass, and discovered an explosive reader of J‑S Bach.…”

(Le Figaro, September 2017)

“Ólafsson’s ability to paint with a thousand colours is magnificent”

(International Piano, Sep-Oct 2017)

“Iceland’s Glenn Gould”

(Anthony Tommasini, New York Times, August 2017)

“In Mr. Olafsson’s hands, Mr. Glass’s music is sculptural”

(New York Times, August 2017)

“The recital was a complete show of mastery and virtuosity.” *****

(Bachtrack, June 2017)

“Like Gould, Ólafsson possesses that rare gift of illuminating a familiar work in unexpected ways, revealing hidden depths and drawing out its best qualities.….breathtakingly brilliant pianist.”

(Gramophone, March 2017)

“Volcanic temperament, great virtuosity, a taste for challenges.”

(Le Monde, February 2017)

“The celebrated shooting star Víkingur Ólafsson made his debut with the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra and excelled with his sensitive and extremely virtuosic playing.”

(Bachtrack, February 2017)

“With the world premiere of Haukur Tómasson’s second piano concerto, the 32-year-old had the high tones sparkling like water, which drifted from icicles in the sunlight… and bewitched the audience with precision playing of the highest order”

(Hamburger Morgenpost, February 2017)

“Víkingur Ólafsson, for whom the work is written, possesses the authority, precision and clarity of contour required by the vertiginous solo part.”

(Diapason, February 2017)

“This is, frankly, one of the best single discs of Glass piano music I’ve ever heard, with a full spectrum of dynamics heard along with both personal utterances and works of true grandeur … This selection … by the 33-year old pianist from Iceland is quite stunning in its way. Everything about this selection – choice of repertoire, dynamic level, performance – is exquisite. This is Glass minimalism that even a hostile Ravel and Debussy-lover could love.”

(Buffalo News, February 2017)

“Volcanic temperament, great virtuosity, a taste for challenges.”

(Le Monde, February 2017)

“Pianist Víkingur Ólafsson has found the perfect blend of playful free spirit and technical finesse.”

(Concerti Magazine, January 2017)

“… Olafsson ruminative and fiercely attacking by turns (and his thumbs must be among the most elastic in the business), taking self-possessed ownership of a work which remains bitty, for all its thematic unity … Olafsson gave us a delightful encore in the shape of a miniature by Jean-Philippe Rameau.” *****

(Birmingham Post, March 2016)

“few musicians match Olafsson for creative flair”

(BBC Music Magazine, February 2016)

“Olafsson succeeded superbly in one of the best Belfast performances of Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto in recent years.”

(Belfast Telegraph, October 2015)

“The remarkable Vikingur Olafsson found sonic grandeur and excitement in Glass’ Étude No 6 and even more in No 14, which he ended in a stonking accelerando.”

(Richard Morrison, The Times, May 2015)

“Best of the bunch was Icelandic pianist Vikingur Ólafsson. He played the blizzard of scales in Phillip Glass’ Etude No 13 with amazing virtuosity, and gave the still quietness of Etude No 5 a monumental, rapt intensity.”

(The Telegraph, April 2015)