Icelandic pianist Víkingur Ólafsson is one of the most interesting classical artists active today. Since making his debut on the Deutsche Grammophon label in 2017 with a disc of Philip Glass’s piano etudes, Ólafsson has released a series of probing and conscientious albums that approach familiar works from new directions, highlighting unexpected connections along the way.
His newest album focuses on one of Ludwig van Beethoven’s late piano sonatas and places it in dialogue with other piano pieces that seem to be in its orbit.
The album is titled “Opus 109,” so of course Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 30 in E Major is the focus. This was Beethoven’s follow-up to his monumental “Hammerklavier Sonata,” Op. 106, and shows the composer retreating from the extroverted excess of that piece and into a more intimate and introspective sound world. This comes across immediately in the first movement:
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But on this album, Ólafsson builds up to Beethoven’s sonata, taking us on a journey that starts with Johann Sebastian Bach. In a companion documentary, Ólafsson noted that he likes to open his albums with an “invitation to listen.”
Here, that invitation takes the form of Bach’s Prelude in E Major from the first book of his “Well-Tempered Clavier:”
Bach’s music features later in the album as well, including his Partita No. 6 in E minor, plus a movement from his French Suite No. 6 in E Major, which seems to have had a direct influence on Beethoven’s Opus 109.
By way of contrast, Ólafsson also includes a work from Beethoven’s “heroic” middle period, his Sonata No. 27 in E Minor, Op. 90, which shows the composer’s characteristically dramatic side:
The album also includes two movements from the E-minor piano sonata by Franz Schubert, a piece that shows the 20-year-old composer grappling with what was at the time the pervasive influence of Beethoven. It’s a thoughtfully chosen program and all the works are impeccably played.
“Opus 109” is out now on streaming, CD and vinyl from Deutsche Grammophon.
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