Víkingur Ólafsson, Piano

It is quite rare on our series for an artist to make consecutive appearances from season to season. Yet Víkingur Ólafsson’s stunning debut on our 2022-23 season made a return appearance paramount. J.S. Bach is especially close to the Icelandic virtuoso’s heart—his album of the composer’s music for the Deutsche Grammophon label won both Best Instrumental Album and Album of the Year at the 2019 BBC Music Magazine Awards and was streamed hundreds of millions of times. “When you open a score of Bach’s music, a paradox immediately reveals itself: the music is incredibly rich and strikingly sparse,” the pianist shares. “The musical structures are very detailed, but there are hardly any indications as to how you should go about shaping them…it is simply unavoidable for the performer not to become something of a co-creator.” All 75,000+ notes of Bach’s endlessly inventive keyboard masterpiece will come alive in a completely new way in the hands of this inimitable pianist, whose own ingenuity makes him well-poised to co-create alongside the master.