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Continuum II: Víkingur Ólafsson's Intimate Bach Diary

For&nbsp;<a href="https://www.deutschegrammophon.com/en/artists/vikingur-olafsson">V&iacute;kingur &Oacute;lafsson</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.deutschegrammophon.com/en/composers/johann-sebastian-bach">Johann Sebastian Bach</a>&nbsp;is not a closed chapter of music history but a daily presence. For more than three decades the Icelandic pianist has sat down at the instrument day after day to play a little Bach, a habit he describes as the one constant fixed point of his life. From this continuing dialogue now grows&nbsp;Continuum II, the second chapter of a project whose very title carries its programme within it: in German the word&nbsp;Bach&nbsp;means a flowing stream, and it is precisely as such an unbroken current that &Oacute;lafsson understands the music of the Leipzig Thomaskantor, as an invisible thread linking eras, people and experiences.
The new album is released on 6 November 2026 by Deutsche Grammophon and follows directly on from the first&nbsp;<a href="https://www.deutschegrammophon.com/en/catalogue/products/continuum-vkingur-olafsson-13630">Continuum</a>&nbsp;of October 2024. Unlike its predecessor, it was created entirely in a single, very personal place: The Nutshell, the pianist's new home studio in Iceland. The character of this retreat runs through the entire recording, which &Oacute;lafsson himself regards as his first true "album domesticum", an album of domestic, quiet, inward-looking music in which Bach appears at his most intimate and personal.
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<h2>The Album: Chorales, Transcriptions and the Art of the Miniature on Continuum II</h2>
At the heart of&nbsp;Continuum II&nbsp;are six chorales that &Oacute;lafsson interprets on the piano, among them "Wie sch&ouml;n leuchtet der Morgenstern", BWV 436, "Welt, ade!", BWV 27/VI, and "Es ist genug", BWV 60/V. For the pianist, these originally vocal and liturgical settings reveal a new sonic form on the piano, especially in the fragile, almost whispering timbre of the upright piano. This sacred core is complemented by the early chorale prelude "Erbarm dich mein, o Herre Gott", which the producer Christopher Tarnow suggested for the recording. Bach wrote this piece in his youth, and its unpredictable harmonic development and lamenting character feel like an anticipation of the expressive world of the Romantic Lied.
A central work in the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.deutschegrammophon.com/en/artists/vikingur-olafsson/discography">programme</a>&nbsp;is &Oacute;lafsson's own arrangement of the famous Air from the Orchestral Suite No. 3, widely known as "Air on the G String". The pianist recorded it in two versions, on the concert grand and on the upright, and dedicated his arrangement to the composer Gy&ouml;rgy Kurt&aacute;g on his 100th birthday. Added to these are the Largo from the Harpsichord Concerto No. 5 in F minor, an expanded, chamber-music reading of the Adagio from the Violin Sonata No. 5 in F minor scored for piano, string quartet and double bass, recorded with the Siggi String Quartet and double bassist Xun Yang, as well as the Larghetto from the Keyboard Concerto No. 1 in D major, BWV 972, which Bach himself had arranged after a model by Antonio Vivaldi. The anthology is rounded off by six little preludes that Bach once wrote as exercise pieces for his pupils and his own children: miniatures whose outward brevity conceals an astonishing musical depth.
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<h2>The Performer: V&iacute;kingur &Oacute;lafsson</h2>
V&iacute;kingur &Oacute;lafsson, born on 14 February 1984 in Reykjav&iacute;k, is one of the most sought-after pianists of our time. His world tour with Bach's&nbsp;Goldberg Variations, which he performed on countless stages, culminated in a widely acclaimed recording that earned him his first GRAMMY Award&reg;. His recordings have been streamed more than one billion times worldwide, around half of them on Bach repertoire, underlining his special standing as an interpreter of this music.
At Deutsche Grammophon, &Oacute;lafsson has shaped an unmistakable profile over the years, from his engagement with Philip Glass through Debussy and Rameau, Mozart and his contemporaries, to the introspective albums&nbsp;From Afar, the&nbsp;Goldberg Variations&nbsp;and most recently&nbsp;Opus 109.&nbsp;Continuum II&nbsp;fits into this body of work as a logical continuation while deepening the pianist's very own, diary-like approach to Bach.
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<h2>Formats and Availability</h2>
Continuum II&nbsp;is released on 6 November 2026 by Deutsche Grammophon in digital form, on CD and on vinyl. As a foretaste of the album, two singles are already available to stream: &Oacute;lafsson's grand-piano version of the "Air on the G String" (since 17 July 2026) and the Larghetto from the Keyboard Concerto No. 1 in D major, BWV 972 (since 14 August 2026).
Collectors and listeners who wish to experience the complete arc of this intimate Bach portrait can therefore look forward to an album that turns the silence of the studio into living, resonant sound.
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<h2>Experience the Continuation, Continuum II, at Last!</h2>
Discover&nbsp;Continuum II&nbsp;now at&nbsp;<a href="https://www.deutschegrammophon.com/en/catalogue">Deutsche Grammophon</a>&nbsp;and save the date for 6 November 2026. You will find all of the pianist's recordings and physical editions in the DG Store, with further background on his artist page.
&Oacute;lafsson's celebrated&nbsp;Goldberg Variations&nbsp;with the light installation by Olafur Eliasson are also available as a stream on&nbsp;<a href="https://www.stage-plus.com/video/live_concert_9HKNCPA3DTN66PBIEHFJ2CPH6C">STAGE+</a>!

Víkingur Ólafsson’s CONTINUUM II available to pre-order now

&ldquo;Bach was writing for all of us, for the future&rdquo; V&iacute;kingur &Oacute;lafsson
Album release: 6 November 2026
V&iacute;kingur &Oacute;lafsson&nbsp;releases the Largo from Bach&rsquo;s Keyboard Concerto in F&nbsp;minor&nbsp;today,&nbsp;11 September, as&nbsp;pre-orders open&nbsp;for his new album&nbsp;CONTINUUM&nbsp;II, out on&nbsp;Deutsche Grammophon&nbsp;in all formats on&nbsp;6&nbsp;November 2026. Part of &Oacute;lafsson&rsquo;s&nbsp;ongoing J.S. Bach project, it is the first album he has recorded entirely in&nbsp;The Nutshell, his new home studio in Iceland. The Largo is one of two works the artist has arranged for piano and strings and for which he is joined by the&nbsp;Siggi String Quartet&nbsp;and bassist&nbsp;Xun Yang.
&Oacute;lafsson calls&nbsp;CONTINUUM II&nbsp;his first &ldquo;album domesticum&rdquo; &ndash; a record of music for the home, intimate and reflective, showing&nbsp;Bach at his most personal. At its heart are six chorales, among them&nbsp;Wie sch&ouml;n leuchtet der Morgenstern&nbsp;and&nbsp;Es ist genug, and six of the short preludes Bach wrote as practice pieces for his pupils. Alongside them are his own arrangements of the organ chorale prelude&nbsp;Erbarm dich mein, o Herre Gott, the Adagio from the Violin Sonata No. 5 in F minor (also for piano and strings), and the Air on the G String, heard in both grand and upright piano versions.
Two further tracks will be released ahead of the album: the Prelude in D major on&nbsp;2 October&nbsp;and&nbsp;Nun ruhen alle W&auml;lder&nbsp;on&nbsp;23 October.
Pre-order the CD and vinyl editions in the <a href="https://store.deutschegrammophon.com/collections/vikingur-olafsson">DG Store</a>

Víkingur Ólafsson launches CONTINUUM II, a new album of music  by J.S. Bach

First single &ndash; &Oacute;lafsson&rsquo;s arrangement of the Air on the G String &ndash; released 17 July: watch&nbsp;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHmXD2jc3QU">here</a>&nbsp;/ stream&nbsp;<a href="https://dg.lnk.to/Continuum2">here</a>
Album released on Deutsche Grammophon: 6 November 2026
For more than thirty years,&nbsp;V&iacute;kingur &Oacute;lafsson&nbsp;has played a little Bach every day. &ldquo;Bach has become my diary,&rdquo; says the pianist. &ldquo;Playing his music is the one constant in my life.&rdquo; That lifelong conversation continues with&nbsp;CONTINUUM&nbsp;II, the second instalment of his acclaimed&nbsp;CONTINUUM&nbsp;project and the first album to be recorded entirely in his new Icelandic home studio,&nbsp;The Nutshell. Bringing together original keyboard works alongside new arrangements and transcriptions,&nbsp;CONTINUUM&nbsp;II&nbsp;will be released by&nbsp;Deutsche Grammophon&nbsp;digitally, on CD and vinyl on 6&nbsp;November 2026. The first single &ndash; &Oacute;lafsson&rsquo;s own arrangement of Bach&rsquo;s Air on the G&nbsp;String (grand piano version) &ndash; is released on&nbsp;17&nbsp;July, followed by the Larghetto from the Keyboard Concerto No.&nbsp;1 in D&nbsp;major, BWV&nbsp;972 (after Vivaldi), on&nbsp;14 August.
&Oacute;lafsson comments: &ldquo;I have never had the stamina to keep a journal for longer than a few weeks. But for over thirty years, I have played a little Bach on the piano every day. It is the one constant factor in my life, no matter what else is going on. Playing his music is a way of putting your particular experience into context with the universal. Even your location in time and space becomes a little trivial. Bach wrote some of his greatest works for a very small audience in a time when he was considered behind the times, a man of the past. As we know now, it turns out he was writing for all of us, for the future. When I play Bach, I am reminded that historical eras in music are notions we superimpose on what is essentially a continuum: an unbroken thread linking us all, a running stream flowing through us &ndash; what the Germans, incidentally, call a&nbsp;Bach. This recording project is called&nbsp;Continuum. It is my personal Bach journal, an ongoing conversation with his music and a tribute to his art.&rdquo;
&Oacute;lafsson released the first volume of&nbsp;CONTINUUM&nbsp;in October 2024 and, since then, has won his first GRAMMY Award&reg; for his recording of Bach&rsquo;s&nbsp;Goldberg Variations, surpassed one billion streams worldwide &ndash; half of them from Bach repertoire &ndash; and built The Nutshell: a teak-walled, fully remote recording studio beneath his home in Iceland.
On turning forty, &Oacute;lafsson began thinking about what he wanted the next decade of his life to look like. One answer was the freedom to record with complete spontaneity. &ldquo;If the urge strikes,&rdquo; he explains, &ldquo;I can simply wander downstairs late at night in my pyjamas, press a couple of buttons, and start recording.&rdquo;
That spirit shapes&nbsp;CONTINUUM&nbsp;II. As his first true &ldquo;album domesticum&rdquo;, it centres on music associated with the home: intimate, reflective works that reveal Bach at his most personal. At its heart are six chorales that &Oacute;lafsson plays on the piano, including&nbsp;Wie sch&ouml;n leuchtet der Morgenstern, BWV 436;&nbsp;Welt, ade!, BWV 27/VI; and&nbsp;Es ist genug, BWV 60/V.
&ldquo;I haven&rsquo;t come across them recorded on the piano,&rdquo; he notes. &ldquo;But to me they seem newly revealed in that medium. I particularly love how they sound in the fragile sonority of the upright piano.&rdquo;
It was producer Christopher Tarnow who suggested including an arrangement of the early organ chorale prelude&nbsp;Erbarm dich mein, o Herre Gott. &ldquo;I have to admit I had never heard this work before. Bach wrote it when he was around twenty years old, and the first time I played it I immediately realised it was the kind of music that stays with you for the rest of your life. Its desolate beauty, its impossibly unpredictable harmonic progression, its&nbsp;lamentoso&nbsp;spirit that almost feels like a nineteenth-century lied&hellip; We don&rsquo;t know what&rsquo;s around the next corner, but we want Bach to hold our hand and take us there. It is the sort of work I never want to end once I begin playing it.&rdquo;
For the album, &Oacute;lafsson recorded both grand and upright piano versions of his own arrangement of Bach&rsquo;s Air from the Orchestral Suite No.&nbsp;3, better known as the Air on the G&nbsp;String. He dedicated the score to Gy&ouml;rgy Kurt&aacute;g as a gift for the composer&rsquo;s 100th birthday earlier this year.
The programme also includes the Largo from the Keyboard Concerto No.&nbsp;5 in F&nbsp;minor; &Oacute;lafsson&rsquo;s arrangement of the Adagio from the Violin Sonata No.5 in F&nbsp;minor for piano, string quartet and double bass, performed with the Siggi String Quartet and bassist Xun Yang; and the Larghetto from the Keyboard Concerto No.&nbsp;1 in D&nbsp;major, arranged by Bach himself from a Vivaldi original.
Completing the programme &ndash; and encapsulating the intimate, domestic spirit of CONTINUUM II &ndash; are six of the short preludes Bach wrote as practice pieces for his pupils, including his own children. Their brevity, &Oacute;lafsson suggests, conceals remarkable depth.
&ldquo;Each is an inspired miniature, a complete musical world in itself. Recorded here on the grand piano, they remind me that some of Bach&rsquo;s most profound thoughts are also among his most compact.&rdquo;
The artist&rsquo;s acclaimed collaboration with Olafur Eliasson &ndash; his performance of Bach&rsquo;s&nbsp;Goldberg Variations&nbsp;at Lucerne Festival PULSE, accompanied by Eliasson&rsquo;s immersive real-time light installation &ndash; will&nbsp;<a href="https://www.stage-plus.com/video/live_concert_9HKNCPA3DTN66PBIEHFJ2CPH6C">stream worldwide on STAGE+</a>&nbsp;from 18 July.
Other forthcoming highlights include Bach, Beethoven and Schubert recitals at the Edinburgh International Festival (22 August) and three at London&rsquo;s Wigmore Hall (10-12 September); a European tour of Beethoven&rsquo;s Piano Concerto No. 5 with the Concertgebouw Orchestra and Santtu-Matias Rouvali taking in the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Lucerne Festival, Grafenegg Festival and Philharmonie de Paris (26 August-3 September); the world premiere of Mark Simpson&rsquo;s Piano Concerto with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Edward Gardner at London&rsquo;s Royal Festival Hall (23 October); a recital tour of South Korea, China and Taiwan in October and November, as well as Brahms&rsquo;s Piano Concerto No. 1 with the Berliner Philharmoniker and Kirill Petrenko in Baden-Baden (4 December).

“Orbiting Around Opus 109” – Víkingur Ólafsson  Explores a Late Masterpiece by Beethoven for his Latest Album

The Icelandic pianist creates a dialogue across the centuries in a solo programme around Beethoven&rsquo;s Piano Sonata No. 30, Op.&nbsp;109 
He reveals the influences that run between J.S. Bach, Beethoven and Schubert
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Deutsche Grammophon and Icelandic pianist V&iacute;kingur &Oacute;lafsson present his anticipated new album: Opus 109 &ndash; Beethoven &middot; Bach &middot; Schubert. At its heart is Beethoven&rsquo;s Piano Sonata No. 30 in E major, Op.&nbsp;109 &ndash; a masterpiece of the composer&rsquo;s late period &ndash; which &Oacute;lafsson places in an illuminating and thrilling temporal dialogue, tracing the musical and historical lineages that converge on this beacon of the piano literature. Known for his inspired programming, &Oacute;lafsson juxtaposes the work with music by J.S. Bach and Schubert, as well as Beethoven&rsquo;s own earlier Sonata in E&nbsp;minor, Op.&nbsp;90. Opus&nbsp;109 will be released in all formats on 21&nbsp;November 2025.
After the global success of &Oacute;lafsson&rsquo;s Goldberg Variations project, the influence of Bach&rsquo;s polyphonic writing on Beethoven&rsquo;s final sonatas made an exciting starting-point for the pianist&rsquo;s next project. &Oacute;lafsson explains: &ldquo;As I started researching my next project, I was immediately drawn to a set of works where I felt the presence of J.S. Bach&rsquo;s Goldberg Variations in the most inspiring way: the last three sonatas of Ludwig van Beethoven, Opp.&nbsp;109, 110 and 111. After a few days in my studio, I decided against the time-tested method of recording these three great final sonatas together and releasing them as one album. There are some great recordings of the &lsquo;three sisters&rsquo; in the catalogue, but I felt that playing &ndash;&nbsp;and listening to &ndash; all three in succession would not necessarily be the most illuminating way of approaching them at this point in time. Placing just one firmly at the gravitational centre of a programme, conversely, would allow me the joy of travelling in its orbit, discovering new perspectives on it, whilst also encountering other works within its realm.&rdquo;&nbsp;
Two Beethoven sonatas, Op.&nbsp;109 and Op.&nbsp;90, plus Schubert&rsquo;s Sonata in E minor, D.&nbsp;566, form the conceptual spine of the programme. &ldquo;But both composers face Bach&rdquo; &mdash; as, in &Oacute;lafsson&rsquo;s view, every great composer must. Bach&rsquo;s influence on Beethoven is nowhere as apparent as in his final sonatas, whose wild originality is fuelled by the Bachian polyphony. &Oacute;lafsson feels Op.&nbsp;109, with its theme-and-variations finale, pays particular homage to the Goldberg Variations: &ldquo;Bach was the compass on Beethoven&rsquo;s journey into the unknown.&rdquo;&nbsp;The presence of Bach is further explored through &Oacute;lafsson&rsquo;s recording of the final, monumental Partita, No.&nbsp;6 in E minor, a work that shares with Beethoven&rsquo;s Op.&nbsp;109 both its formal inventiveness and its emotional force. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s worth noting how Bach, too, is testing and transcending the limits of his chosen compositional form in his final Partita.&rdquo;
Meanwhile, &Oacute;lafsson considers Beethoven&rsquo;s own two-movement Sonata in E minor, Op.&nbsp;90 a vital precursor to Op.&nbsp;109, with its intimate, fleeting first movement and warm, sonorous second movement &ndash;&nbsp;while making the case that this sonata had a tremendous influence on a young Franz Schubert. Presenting this sonata alongside an overlooked gem of Schubert&rsquo;s early period, his two-movement Sonata in E minor, D.&nbsp;566, &Oacute;lafsson argues that the work, written by the 20-year-old composer, was a direct response to Beethoven&rsquo;s Op. 90 and not, as has been generally assumed, an unfinished fragment.&nbsp;&ldquo;To me, it feels like a sister or a brother piece to Beethoven&rsquo;s,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s nothing unfinished about it.&rdquo;
The album begins and ends with brief benedictions by J.S. Bach, opening with his Prelude in E major from The Well-Tempered Clavier and closing with a Sarabande from his French Suite in E major.&nbsp; The whole album is thus in the key of E, major and minor modes, which for &Oacute;lafsson, who has synaesthesia, makes it full of lush and vibrant shades of green.
Opus 109 &ndash; Beethoven &middot; Bach &middot; Schubert follows on from 2023&rsquo;s Goldberg Variations, which earned &Oacute;lafsson a GRAMMY Award&reg;, the title of Musical America&rsquo;s Instrumentalist of the Year, the OPUS KLASSIK Bestseller award and the German Record Critics&rsquo; Annual Award, as well as helping him hit the milestone of one billion streams in November 2024. The unanimous critical acclaim that greeted the album was echoed in the reviews of &Oacute;lafsson&rsquo;s season-long global tour which saw him perform the work 90 times.
V&iacute;kingur &Oacute;lafsson performs Opus 109 throughout the season, including on a German tour in November 2025 and in several dates across North America. He opens the London season and tours the US &ndash; performing Beethoven&rsquo;s Piano Concertos Nos. 3 and 5 &ndash; with the Philharmonia Orchestra, with whom he is Featured Artist, while he makes his return to the Berliner Philharmoniker, with Semyon Bychkov,&nbsp;and the Czech Philharmonic, with Sir Antonio Pappano. He also reunites with John Adams and the Los Angeles Philharmonic for performances of&nbsp;After the Fall, the piano concerto written expressly for him. &Oacute;lafsson will mark the Gy&ouml;rgy Kurt&aacute;g centenary celebrations in 2026 and appear as artist in residence at Cal Performances in Berkeley, California and at MUPA, Budapest.
Forthcoming &ldquo;OPUS 109&rdquo; recitals:
11/12 Sep &ndash; Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humleb&aelig;k &middot; 14 Sep &ndash; Oslo Opera House 26 Sep &ndash; Saffron Hall, Saffron Walden &middot; 22 Oct &ndash; University of Santa Barbara &middot; 9 Nov &ndash; Tonhalle, D&uuml;sseldorf 11 Nov &ndash; Alte Oper, Frankfurt &middot; 12 Nov &ndash; Die Glocke, Bremen &middot; 13 Nov &ndash; Laeiszhalle, Hamburg 15 Nov &ndash; Kulturpalast, Dresden &middot; 16 Nov &ndash; NDR Konzerthaus, Hanover &middot; 17 Nov &ndash; Philharmonie, Berlin 18 Nov &ndash; Elbphilharmonie, Hamburg &middot; 1 Dec &ndash; M&uuml;pa, Budapest &middot; 2 Dec &ndash; Konzerthaus, Vienna &middot; 5 Dec &ndash; Tonhalle, Z&uuml;rich 6 Dec &ndash; Victoria Hall, Geneva &middot; 8 Dec &ndash; Isarphilharmonie, Munich &middot; 9 Dec &ndash; Meistersingerhalle, Nuremberg
Full touring details <a href="https://www.deutschegrammophon.com/en/artists/vikingur-olafsson/on-tour">here</a>
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Víkingur Ólafsson Wins his first GRAMMY®

Deutsche Grammophon Recordings Win Three&nbsp; GRAMMY Awards&reg;
Kaija Saariaho&rsquo;s Memory Is Honoured with&nbsp; GRAMMY Award&reg;
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3 February 2025 - The 67th GRAMMY Awards&reg; ceremony was held yesterday at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles. The GRAMMY&reg;, which recognises both artistic and technical achievement, is the recording industry&rsquo;s most prestigious prize. Deutsche Grammophon - the classical label with most nominations - albums were presented with three awards last night: pianist V&iacute;kingur &Oacute;lafsson&rsquo;s reading of Bach&rsquo;s Goldberg Variations won in the Best Classical Instrumental Solo category; Kaija Saariaho&rsquo;s Adriana Mater won Best Opera Recording; and Maestro: Music by Leonard Bernstein, recorded by the London Symphony Orchestra, Yannick N&eacute;zet-S&eacute;guin and Bradley Cooper, was named Best Compilation Soundtrack for Visual Media (Includes Film and Television).
First-time GRAMMY&reg; nominee V&iacute;kingur &Oacute;lafsson had dreamed of recording J.S. Bach&rsquo;s monumental Goldberg Variations for 25 years before the time felt right to him to go into the studio. The Icelandic pianist then devoted the entire 2023-24 season to a six-continent tour of the work.&nbsp; On its release, his album was met with widespread critical acclaim, with The Sunday Times noting, &ldquo;In [&Oacute;lafsson&rsquo;s] hands, Bach&rsquo;s progression through aria and 30 variations becomes a metaphor for human experience. Personal yet universal, faithful yet radical, technically scintillating and emotionally uplifting, it&rsquo;s a journey to the centre of the soul&rdquo;. &Oacute;lafsson said, &ldquo;Last season I performed the Goldberg Variations almost a hundred times all over the world. I got to know myself through that process and I got to witness the unique power of Bach&rsquo;s message on people of different cultures. It was a life-changing experience for which I will always be grateful. Winning a Grammy for my album of the Goldbergs is something very special which I can&rsquo;t quite put into words. I am indebted to so many people, my incredible teams at Deutsche Grammophon and HarrisonParrott, my producer Christopher Tarnow, executive producer Christian Badzura, and - most importantly - my listeners who given so much to me with their ongoing support and open ears."
The late&nbsp;Kaija Saariaho&rsquo;s much-admired second opera, Adriana Mater, was recorded at Davies Symphony Hall in June 2023, just days after its composer&rsquo;s untimely passing. In its review, the New York Times wrote, &ldquo;Saariaho&rsquo;s delicately consoling music stares down the worst of the world and says: the only way forward is grace.&rdquo; Directed by Peter Sellars, the world premiere recording features the San Francisco Symphony and San Francisco Symphony Chorus, with soloists Fleur Barron, Axelle Fanyo, Nicholas Phan and Christopher Purves. It is conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen.
The DG soundtrack to the Netflix film Maestro &ndash; directed, written, produced by and starring Bradley Cooper as Leonard Bernstein &ndash; captures the kaleidoscopic and timeless brilliance of Bernstein&rsquo;s music. The new recordings on the album were made by the London Symphony Orchestra and Yannick N&eacute;zet-S&eacute;guin, who also worked closely with Cooper as conducting consultant, notably on location at Ely Cathedral for a magical reenactment of Bernstein&rsquo;s famous recording of Mahler&rsquo;s &ldquo;Resurrection&rdquo; Symphony. N&eacute;zet-S&eacute;guin says, &ldquo;Bradley and I are so honored to bring Lenny&rsquo;s legacy to even more audiences through this soundtrack. We were faithful to his legacy, and while we re-recorded all of his music with the incredible London Symphony Orchestra, we tried to inhabit interpretations of these great works as Lenny would if he were still here today. We share this award with all the artists that help make this album possible."
&ldquo;Congratulations, dear V&iacute;kingur, on your first Grammy win!&rdquo; felicitates Frank Briegmann, Chairman &amp; CEO Universal Music Central Europe and Deutsche Grammophon. &ldquo;With his exceptional reading of Bach's Goldberg Variations, V&iacute;kingur &Oacute;lafsson has created a unique and emotionally gripping work that will delight generations to come. The recording sets new standards with regards to interpretation and sound and has delighted millions of listeners around the world. We are proud and grateful to have worked with V&iacute;kingur in close partnership over the past nine years, allowing us to bring his artistic vision to the world. The teams at Deutsche Grammophon and Universal Music are thrilled with the fantastic success of all our artists,&rdquo; Briegmann concludes.
&ldquo;Timeless and contemporary - we are absolutely delighted Deutsche Grammophon has been recognized for three projects that each find a remarkable balance between those qualities and thus underline the label&lsquo;s ambition as a whole: V&iacute;kingur&lsquo;s very first Grammy for his groundbreaking interpretation of Bach&rsquo;s iconic Goldberg cycle, which after almost a decade of inspired exclusive collaboration is particularly encouraging; Kaija Saariaho&rsquo;s towering work &bdquo;Adriana Mater&ldquo; in the world premiere recording by Esa-Pekka Salonen and the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra; and last but not least, Bradley Cooper and Yannick N&eacute;zet-S&eacute;guin who are bridging in &ldquo;Maestro&rdquo; half a century of music history with a stunning portrait of legendary Leonard Bernstein - a DG artist himself with a timelessly exciting catalogue,&rdquo; says Dr Clemens Trautmann, President Deutsche Grammophon. &ldquo;I extend my heartfelt congratulations to all of our winning artists and want to thank them and the team at the Yellow Label for their dedication and commitment to producing music at the highest level.&rdquo;
&nbsp;
67TH ANNUAL GRAMMY AWARDS&reg;&nbsp;
 Best Classical Instrumental Solo V&Iacute;KINGUR &Oacute;LAFSSON Bach: Goldberg Variations
Best Opera Recording SAARIAHO: ADRIANA MATER Kaija Saariaho, composer (Esa-Pekka Salonen, Fleur Barron, Nicholas Phan, Christopher Purves, Axelle Fanyo, San Francisco Symphony Chorus and Orchestra)
Best Compilation Soundtrack for Visual Media (Includes Film and Television) MAESTRO: MUSIC BY LEONARD BERNSTEIN London Symphony Orchestra, Yannick N&eacute;zet-S&eacute;guin, Bradley Cooper
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Víkingur Ólafsson Hits the One Billion Streams Milestone

Berlin, 25 November 2024 &ndash; Rounding off the year in style, V&iacute;kingur &Oacute;lafsson has just surpassed the magnificent landmark of one billion career streams worldwide. The numbers have soared steadily throughout 2024 &ndash; his Goldberg Variations album alone has now garnered over 88 million streams, while his brand-new Bach EP <a href="https://dg.lnk.to/continuum">CONTINUUM</a> has already achieved a streaming figure of over 14 million. And V&iacute;kingur retains his crown as the most streamed living pianist of the year for performances of Bach.
Adding to the already impressive list of accolades, &Oacute;lafsson also received his first ever GRAMMY Award&reg; nomination for his reading of the Goldberg Variations in the Best Classical Instrumental Solo category. The same album won the prestigious OPUS KLASSIK Bestseller award and &Oacute;lafsson has just been named Musical America&rsquo;s Instrumentalist of the Year 2024.
&ldquo;The fact that V&iacute;kingur &Oacute;lafsson is reaching an extraordinary streaming milestone and receiving his first GRAMMY nomination at the same time may seem like a coincidence, but there is also a great inner logic behind it: V&iacute;kingur inspires both a younger generation of culturally curious listeners and the established classical music scene like no other artist,&rdquo; says Dr Clemens Trautmann, President Deutsche Grammophon. &ldquo;Heartfelt congratulations to this outstanding pianist and the smoothly connected teams behind him, including his management, our PR and live partners and &ndash; last but not least &ndash; my colleagues at the Yellow Label.&rdquo;
&ldquo;When V&iacute;kingur joined the label, we started with a total monthly listenership in the triple digits across streaming platforms,&rdquo; adds Christian Badzura, DG Vice President A&amp;R New Repertoire. &ldquo;One billion streams to date proves that with supreme artistic integrity, unique choice of repertoire, exceptional interpretations, and a tirelessly focused team great things are possible.&rdquo;
&ldquo;V&iacute;kingur is an exceptional artist who has inspired us from the very beginning to explore new, innovative paths of creativity.&rdquo; notes Marc Fritsch, Senior Marketing Director Special Projects at Deutsche Grammophon "He stands among the most celebrated pianists of our time and we are proud to be part of this unique success story.&rdquo;
&Oacute;lafsson&rsquo;s personal Bach journey is far from over, however. October saw the release of <a href="https://dg.lnk.to/continuum">CONTINUUM</a>, a six-track EP of piano arrangements of cantata movements and other short works by Bach, four of them realised by &Oacute;lafsson himself. In the pianist&rsquo;s own words, CONTINUUM is &ldquo;the first instalment in what will be an ongoing Bach diary&rdquo;.
In February and March 2025 &Oacute;lafsson will be reunited with fellow DG artist Yuja Wang for the North American continuation of the high-profile duo tour they launched in Reykjav&iacute;k in October 2024 and went on to perform across Europe (Berlin recital soon available to stream on&nbsp;<a href="https://www.stage-plus.com/video/live_concert_9HKNCPA3DTN66PBIEHFJED9I">STAGE+</a>). The pair are now set to appear at such prestigious venues as Carnegie Hall (19&nbsp;February) and Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles (26 February).&nbsp;

DG recognized with four nominations for the 67th GRAMMY Awards®

Star pianist V&iacute;kingur &Oacute;lafsson earns a first GRAMMY&reg; nomination &nbsp;for his exceptional interpretation of Bach&rsquo;s Goldberg Variations
&nbsp;
The nominations for the 67th GRAMMY Awards&reg; were announced on 8th November in a special livestream event. Honouring outstanding artistic and technical achievement, the GRAMMY&reg; is the record industry&rsquo;s highest accolade, and this year, Deutsche Grammophon recordings have received nominations in four leading classical categories.
Pianist V&iacute;kingur &Oacute;lafsson&rsquo;s unanimously critically-acclaimed reading of Bach&rsquo;s Goldberg Variations is nominated for Best Classical Instrumental Solo, just months after he completed his season-long, six‑continent tour of the work.
Meanwhile DG&rsquo;s world premiere recording of the late Kaija Saariaho&rsquo;s much-admired second opera, Adriana Mater, is nominated for both Best Opera Recording and Best Contemporary Classical Composition. Directed by Peter Sellars, the opera is performed by the San Francisco Symphony and San Francisco Symphony Chorus, with soloists Fleur Barron, Axelle Fanyo, Nicholas Phan and Christopher Purves, conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen.
The fourth nomination is in the Best Compilation Soundtrack for Visual Media (Includes Film and Television) category, and goes to Maestro: Music by Leonard Bernstein, recorded by the London Symphony Orchestra, Yannick N&eacute;zet-S&eacute;guin and the film&rsquo;s writer, director, producer and star Bradley Cooper.
Finally, there was also a nomination for Producer of the Year for Christoph Franke, whose body of work over the last year includes DG pianist Yuja Wang&rsquo;s eclectic and virtuosic hit album The Vienna Recital and the Beethoven sonata cycle for violin and piano with Antje Weithaas and D&eacute;nes V&aacute;rjon, a production of the DG-affiliated label CAvi-music.
&ldquo;It is very humbling and gratifying that Deutsche Grammophon has once again emerged as the classical label with most nominations. Seeing the immense dedication and hard work that goes into our recordings recognised by the Recording Academy means a lot to our artist community, to our respective project partners and to the entire Yellow Label team,&rdquo; says Dr Clemens Trautmann, President Deutsche Grammophon. &ldquo;The nominations represent our key areas of focus &ndash; exciting new repertoire and world premiere releases such as Saariaho&rsquo;s Adriana Mater with Esa-Pekka Salonen and the San Francisco Symphony; outstanding production quality, as exemplified by Christoph Franke&rsquo;s recordings; our desire to reach out to a broader audience, as with Bradley Cooper&rsquo;s Maestro soundtrack, which celebrates both DG&rsquo;s past with Leonard Bernstein and its present with Yannick N&eacute;zet-S&eacute;guin; and &ndash; last but not least &ndash; groundbreaking new interpretations of iconic works, such as V&iacute;kingur &Oacute;lafsson&rsquo;s &lsquo;Goldberg&rsquo; cycle. This well-deserved first nomination for V&iacute;kingur is particularly heartwarming, as it recognises his absolutely unique take on Bach &ndash; one that has moved hundreds of millions of listeners across the globe and drawn remarkable crowds on his international 100-concert tour.&rdquo;
&ldquo;I am so honoured and happy to receive my first Grammy nomination!&rdquo; adds V&iacute;kingur &Oacute;lafsson. &ldquo;Thank you so much to all of you who listen to and support my work. And thank you to Johann Sebastian Bach for writing this glorious and incomparable piece of music. The Goldberg Variations will always be the music of the future.&rdquo;
The 67th GRAMMY Awards&reg; ceremony will be held at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles on Sunday 2&nbsp;February 2025. Aired live on the CBS Television Network, it will also be streamed live and on demand on Paramount+.
&nbsp;
Best Classical Instrumental Solo
V&Iacute;KINGUR &Oacute;LAFSSON
Bach: Goldberg Variations
&nbsp;
Best Opera Recording 
SAARIAHO: ADRIANA MATER
Kaija Saariaho, composer
(Esa-Pekka Salonen, Fleur Barron, Nicholas Phan, Christopher Purves, Axelle Fanyo, San Francisco Symphony Chorus and Orchestra)
&nbsp;
Best Contemporary Classical Composition
SAARIAHO: ADRIANA MATER
Kaija Saariaho, composer
(Esa-Pekka Salonen, Fleur Barron, Nicholas Phan, Christopher Purves, Axelle Fanyo, San Francisco Symphony Chorus and Orchestra)
&nbsp;
Best Compilation Soundtrack for Visual Media (Includes Film and Television)
MAESTRO: MUSIC BY LEONARD BERNSTEIN
London Symphony Orchestra, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Bradley Cooper

Víkingur Ólafsson Continues His Journey Through the Music of Johann Sebastian Bach

As he continues his epic tour of J.S. Bach&rsquo;s equally epic Goldberg Variations, V&iacute;kingur &Oacute;lafsson announces the release of a series of six new Bach singles. Recorded at Reykjav&iacute;k&rsquo;s Harpa concert hall in January, the tracks feature piano arrangements of sacred pieces by Bach, four of which have been realised by &Oacute;lafsson himself. All six of these gem-like recordings reveal, once again, the pianist&rsquo;s profound affinity with the composer&rsquo;s music.
The first single, presenting &Oacute;lafsson&rsquo;s arrangement of the bass aria &ldquo;Es ist vollbracht&rdquo; from the Cantata, BWV&nbsp;159 will be issued digitally on 5 April 2024. An EP including all six works will be released by Deutsche Grammophon digitally and on vinyl on 18 October.
V&iacute;kingur &Oacute;lafsson has learned much about Bach&rsquo;s music through the process of analysing both vocal and instrumental scores in order to transcribe them for the piano. Having included one cantata arrangement on his award-winning Johann Sebastian Bach album, he has now prepared four more for this series. As well as &ldquo;Es ist vollbracht&rdquo;, he has arranged the choruses &ldquo;Ich hatte viel Bek&uuml;mmernis&rdquo; from BWV 21 (out on 17&nbsp;May) and &ldquo;Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen&rdquo; from BWV 12 (21 June) and &ldquo;Nach dir, Herr, verlanget mich&rdquo; from BWV&nbsp;150 (19 July).
The pianist has also recorded two arrangements by other composers. A four-hands version of the chorale prelude Das alte Jahr vergangen ist, BWV&nbsp;614, arranged by the legendary Hungarian composer Gy&ouml;rgy Kurt&aacute;g, is set for release on 20 September. &Oacute;lafsson performs the work with his wife, Halla Oddn&yacute; Magn&uacute;sdottir, who also appeared on From Afar. Whereas his reading of the sacred song Komm, s&uuml;&szlig;er Tod, BWV 478, arranged by Harold Bauer (1873-1951) will be issued on 18 October, alongside the&nbsp;EP.
Now approaching the home straight of his six-continent, season-long Goldberg Variations tour, &Oacute;lafsson is continuing to earn huge audience ovations and critical acclaim wherever he goes. Recent highlights include his Carnegie Hall and Australian debuts. The remaining dates take him to Z&uuml;rich, Montevideo, S&atilde;o Paulo, Los Angeles, Costa Mesa, Berkeley, Seattle, Dortmund, Abu Dhabi, Shanghai, Singapore, Hong Kong, Kaohsiung, Hamburg and, finally, Schloss Elmau in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, which is where the 90‑date epic tour began in August 2023.
&ldquo;To say this recital &hellip; was wonderful, even miraculous, is to undersell it. To only be able to give it five stars seems paltry &hellip;&nbsp;&Oacute;lafsson managed to find colours that we never knew were there&rdquo;
Limelight, reviewing &Oacute;lafsson&rsquo;s Sydney Opera House Goldberg Variations recital (18 March 2024)
&Oacute;lafsson&rsquo;s Goldberg Variations recording was released last October to unanimous critical acclaim. Chosen as a &ldquo;best of 2023&rdquo; album by The New York Times, The Boston Globe, the Financial Times and The Guardian, it achieved extraordinary international chart and streaming success. It also helped to increase his audience on social media and led to his becoming the most streamed living Bach pianist of 2023.
V&iacute;kingur &Oacute;lafsson is one of the most sought-after artists on the global stage today. His multiple awards include OPUS KLASSIK Instrumentalist of the Year (2023), OPUS KLASSIK Solo Recording Instrumental (twice), CoScan&rsquo;s International Nordic Person of the Year (2023) and the Rolf Schock Prize for Music (2022). His DG recordings &ndash; Philip Glass Piano Works (2017), Johann Sebastian Bach (2018), Debussy&nbsp;&middot;&nbsp;Rameau (2020), Mozart &amp; Contemporaries (2021), From Afar (2022) and Bach &middot; Goldberg Variations (2023) &ndash; have captured the public and critical imagination and led to career streams so far of almost one billion.

One Of The Most Iconic Works For The Keyboard: Víkingur Ólafsson Releases J.S. Bach’s Goldberg Variations

Celebrated for his visionary interpretations of J.S. Bach, V&iacute;kingur &Oacute;lafsson, one of the greatest pianists and musical minds of today, now embraces Bach&rsquo;s monumental Goldberg Variations. &Oacute;lafsson devotes his entire next season to touring the work globally across six continents, while October 2023 marks the anticipated album release on Deutsche Grammophon. &ldquo;I have dreamed of recording this work for 25 years,&rdquo; says the Icelandic pianist.
The album follows &Oacute;lafsson&rsquo;s hugely successful DG recording of works by the composer, Johann Sebastian Bach (2018), which won BBC Music magazine&rsquo;s Album of the Year, Opus Klassik&rsquo;s Solo Recital award, numerous other recording of the year accolades and led to him being named Gramophone magazine&rsquo;s Artist of the Year. Now &Oacute;lafsson brings his unique musical vision, and an affecting, meticulous recorded sound to Bach&rsquo;s masterpiece.
&Oacute;lafsson dedicates his 2023-24 season to a Goldberg Variations world tour, performing the work across six continents throughout the year. He brings Bach&rsquo;s masterpiece to major concert halls including London&rsquo;s Southbank Centre, New York&rsquo;s Carnegie Hall, Wiener Konzerthaus, Philharmonie de Paris, Philharmonie Berlin, Harpa Concert Hall, LA&rsquo;s Walt Disney Hall, Sala S&atilde;o Paulo, Shanghai Symphony Hall, Tonhalle Zurich, KKL Luzern, Alte Oper Frankfurt and Mupa Budapest, with other dates to be announced.
&ldquo;The Goldberg Variations contain some of the most virtuosic keyboard music ever written, some of the most astonishingly brilliant uses of counterpoint in the repertoire and countless instances of exalted poetry, abstract contemplation and deep pathos &ndash; all within immaculately shaped structures of formal perfection. In 30 variations, built on the humble harmonic framework of a simple, graceful aria, Bach turns limited material into boundless variety like no one before or since. He is the greatest keyboard virtuoso of his time.&rdquo; comments V&iacute;kingur &Oacute;lafsson.
He continues: &ldquo;Like with some of Bach&rsquo;s other works on this scale, I was inclined to think of the Goldberg Variations as a grand, commanding cathedral of music, magnificent in its structure and intricate in its ornamentation. Now I find another metaphor more apt: That of a grand oak tree, no less magnificent, but somehow organic, living and vibrant, its forms both responsive and regenerative, its leaves constantly unfurling to produce musical oxygen for its admirers through some metaphysical, time-bending photosynthesis.&rdquo;
In just a few short years, &Oacute;lafsson has become one of the most sought-after artists of today, performing internationally at the highest level. His multiple awards include CoScan&rsquo;s International Nordic Person of the Year (2023), the Rolf Schock Prize for Music (2022), Gramophone magazine&rsquo;s Artist of the Year (2019), Opus Klassik Solo Recording Instrumental (twice) and Album of the Year at the BBC Music Magazine Awards (2019). In 2023, &Oacute;lafsson is nominated for three Opus Klassik awards, including Instrumentalist of the Year.&nbsp;
His recordings for Deutsche Grammophon &ndash; Philip Glass Piano Works (2017), Johann Sebastian Bach (2018), Debussy Rameau (2020), Mozart &amp; Contemporaries (2021) and From Afar (2022) &ndash; captured the public and critical imagination and have led to career streams of over 600 million.
A captivating communicator both on and off stage, &Oacute;lafsson&rsquo;s significant talent extends to broadcast, having presented several of his own series for television and radio. He was Artist in Residence for three months on BBC Radio 4&rsquo;s flagship arts programme, Front Row &ndash; broadcasting live during lockdown from an empty Harpa concert hall in Reykjav&iacute;k, and reaching millions of listeners around the world.

Six Contemporary Composers Reimagine Tracks from Víkingur Ólafsson’s 'From Afar' for a Digital EP of Reworks

V&iacute;kingur &Oacute;lafsson&rsquo;s latest album, From Afar, was met with widespread acclaim, praised for its evocative and contemplative beauty. Recorded on both upright and grand pianos, From Afar reflects on the pianist&rsquo;s childhood memories in Iceland and features works by Bach, Mozart, Schumann, Brahms, Bart&oacute;k, Thomas Ad&egrave;s and Gy&ouml;rgy Kurt&aacute;g, alongside Icelandic and Hungarian folk songs.
Inspired by &Oacute;lafsson&rsquo;s remarkable interpretations, six contemporary composers have now produced a set of six atmospheric reinventions of works from the album. His musical tales captured the imagination of &Aacute;lfhei&eth;ur Gu&eth;mundsd&oacute;ttir, Herd&iacute;s Stef&aacute;nsd&oacute;ttir, Michael A. Muller, Snorri Hallgr&iacute;msson, Helgi Jonsson and Christian Badzura. From Afar&nbsp;&middot;&nbsp;Reworks is released as a digital EP today, on&nbsp;26 May 2023.
V&iacute;kingur &Oacute;lafsson comments: &ldquo;I have for a long time been taken by the idea of reversing the creative process of classical performance: to open my recorded interpretations up to being used as compositional material in new works. I am thus more than delighted to witness the wonderful artists gathered on this release doing me the honour of rethinking and redefining my From Afar album, showing ever new ways to think about the music I thought I knew like the palm of my hand. I hope you enjoy the fruit of their labour as much as I have.&rdquo;
&Oacute;lafsson&rsquo;s renditions of Schumann&rsquo;s &ldquo;Vogel als Prophet&rdquo; have sparked three different but equally creative responses from composer and electronic musician Herd&iacute;s Stef&aacute;nsdottir (&ldquo;Nightbird&rdquo;), Balmorhea&rsquo;s Michael A. Muller (&ldquo;Bird as Prophet&rdquo;), and composer and producer Snorri Hallgr&iacute;msson (&ldquo;The Plover and the Raven&rdquo;). Like Stef&aacute;nsdottir, soprano and visual artist &Aacute;lfhei&eth;ur Gu&eth;mundsd&oacute;ttir adds vocals to her rework, &ldquo;Notturno&rdquo;, inspired by Brahms&rsquo;s Intermezzo, op.&nbsp;116 no.&nbsp;4, while multi-instrumentalist and singer-songwriter Helgi Jonsson has chosen to reinterpret Schumann&rsquo;s &ldquo;Tr&auml;umerei&rdquo; for his &ldquo;Reverie&rdquo;. Finally, Christian Badzura draws on the style of Brahms&rsquo;s late solo piano works for his &ldquo;Sung (After Brahms)&rdquo;.
&ldquo;Notturno&rdquo;, &ldquo;The Plover and the Raven&rdquo; and &ldquo;Sung (After Brahms)&rdquo; were already available to stream. &ldquo;Bird as Prophet&rdquo; is released alongside the full digital EP today on&nbsp;26&nbsp;May.

“Eternally Beautiful” – Víkingur Ólafsson Presents Ave María in Majestic Setting

On its release last autumn, V&iacute;kingur &Oacute;lafsson&rsquo;s most recent album, From Afar, was greeted with widespread critical and public acclaim. Its most successful track to date is the pianist&rsquo;s own transcription of his compatriot Sigvaldi Kaldal&oacute;ns&rsquo; Ave Mar&iacute;a, which has already been streamed over 11&nbsp;million times. Now &Oacute;lafsson has made a beautiful music video for the track, filmed on the isolated island of Engey, just off the coast of Reykjav&iacute;k.
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&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a song very often played at the darkest moments in our lives, to give hope and to bring light &hellip; I&rsquo;m so happy to see that the message of this Ave Mar&iacute;a is universal&rdquo; V&iacute;kingur &Oacute;lafsson
Kaldal&oacute;ns (1881-1946) was a doctor, as well as a composer, and worked in Iceland&rsquo;s remote Westfjords region, even taking his name from one of the fjords. Originally written for a play based on a folk tale, his Ave Mar&iacute;a is very well-known in Iceland, but always sung in Icelandic, which is why &Oacute;lafsson was keen to transcribe what he calls its &ldquo;eternally beautiful melody&rdquo; and introduce it to the outside world. It was his first transcription, created in 2007 and dedicated to his now wife, Halla.
The Ave Mar&iacute;a video was shot on Engey, a tiny, uninhabited island in the bay north of Reykjav&iacute;k. Complementing the theme suggested by Kaldal&oacute;ns&rsquo; composition, the album title of From Afar, and the broader sense of Iceland&rsquo;s long musical and linguistic isolation from the rest of the world, director Erlendur Sveinsson and cinematographer Baldvin Vernhar&eth;sson present &Oacute;lafsson alone in Engey&rsquo;s natural environment. He performs Kaldal&oacute;ns&rsquo; piece on an upright piano (which had to be flown in by helicopter) while in the distance we see snow-capped mountains in one direction, and the Icelandic capital in the other, including the distinctive outlines of the Hallgr&iacute;mskirkja and Harpa concert hall. Together, the artist and filmmakers create a serene and magical atmosphere.
Inspired by a meeting with legendary Hungarian composer Gy&ouml;rgy Kurt&aacute;g and the childhood memories that encounter sparked, From Afar both pays tribute to Kurt&aacute;g and sees the pianist return to his musical roots. It presents two recordings of repertoire ranging from Bach to Ad&egrave;s &ndash; as well as works by Kurt&aacute;g himself &ndash; offering listeners the two equally colourful and atmospheric soundworlds conjured by an upright piano and a Steinway concert grand.
&ldquo;Throughout, the playing is thoughtful and full of poetry, recorded in intimate sound&rdquo; BBC Music Magazine, reviewing From Afar
Widely acknowledged as one of the most critically-acclaimed and fastest-streaming classical artists of our time, V&iacute;kingur &Oacute;lafsson has already amassed over 515&nbsp;million career streams. His DG albums, characterised by their unique and innovative programmes, have topped the classical charts in the US, Germany, the UK, Belgium and France.

 Víkingur Ólafsson’s Double Album 'From Afar' Is Out Now

&ldquo;From Afar is more personal than my previous work. It connects very deeply to my childhood and it pays homage to one of my favourite composers of all time.&rdquo; V&iacute;kingur &Oacute;lafsson&nbsp;
Icelandic pianist V&iacute;kingur &Oacute;lafsson&rsquo;s latest album, From Afar, is released on Deutsche Grammophon today. Inspired by a meeting with legendary Hungarian composer Gy&ouml;rgy Kurt&aacute;g and the childhood memories that encounter sparked, From Afar both pays tribute to Kurt&aacute;g and sees &Oacute;lafsson return to his musical roots. It presents two recordings of repertoire ranging from Bach to Ad&egrave;s &ndash; as well as works by Kurt&aacute;g himself &ndash; offering listeners the two equally colourful and atmospheric soundworlds conjured by an upright piano and a Steinway concert grand.
Having met Kurt&aacute;g in Budapest last year, &Oacute;lafsson wanted to thank him for his time. Unable to find the right words, he instead found the right music. &ldquo;A musical map started to form in my head, with some of his miniatures acting as compass,&rdquo; he recalls. &ldquo;I started thinking about some of the music I&rsquo;d loved as a child as well, and realised there was a strong connection between them and Kurt&aacute;g&rsquo;s aesthetic. The album grew from those two seeds.&rdquo; Widely acknowledged as one of the most critically-acclaimed and fastest-streaming classical artists of our time, V&iacute;kingur &Oacute;lafsson has already amassed over 430 million career streams. His DG albums, characterised by their unique and innovative programmes, have topped the classical charts in the US, Germany, the UK, Belgium and France.
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Víkingur Ólafsson Returns To His Musical Roots With 'From Afar'

Celebrated for his innovative programming and award-winning recordings, Icelandic pianist V&iacute;kingur &Oacute;lafsson is offering a window into his musical life story with his new album, From Afar. Due for release on 7 October on Deutsche Grammophon, the highly personal double album reflects &Oacute;lafsson&rsquo;s musical DNA, from childhood memories growing up in Iceland to his international career and contemporary inspirations.
Recorded on both upright and grand pianos, the album captures two distinct sound worlds with works by Bach, Mozart, Schumann, Brahms and Bart&oacute;k, alongside Icelandic and Hungarian folk songs, a world premiere by Thomas Ad&egrave;s, transcriptions by &Oacute;lafsson himself, and interconnecting pieces composed by his hero, 96 year-old Hungarian composer and pianist Gy&ouml;rgy Kurt&aacute;g. The first single, Ave Maria by Sigvaldi Kaldal&oacute;ns, is released today (listen <a href="http://DG.lnk.to/FromAfar">HERE</a>) along with a new video of &Oacute;lafsson introducing the album.

Víkingur Ólafsson Returns To His Musical Roots With 'From Afar', His Most Personal Album Yet

Celebrated for his innovative programming and award-winning recordings, Icelandic pianist V&iacute;kingur &Oacute;lafsson is offering a window into his musical life story with his new album, From Afar. Due for release on 7 October on Deutsche Grammophon, the highly personal double album reflects &Oacute;lafsson&rsquo;s musical DNA, from childhood memories growing up in Iceland to his international career and contemporary inspirations.
Recorded on both upright and grand pianos, the album captures two distinct sound worlds with works by Bach, Mozart, Schumann, Brahms and Bart&oacute;k, alongside Icelandic and Hungarian folk songs, a world premiere by Thomas Ad&egrave;s, transcriptions by &Oacute;lafsson himself, and interconnecting pieces composed by his hero, 96 year-old Hungarian composer and pianist Gy&ouml;rgy Kurt&aacute;g. The first single, Ave Maria by Sigvaldi Kaldal&oacute;ns, is released today (listen <a href="http://DG.lnk.to/FromAfar">HERE</a>) along with a new video of &Oacute;lafsson introducing the album.
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The album was inspired by &Oacute;lafsson&rsquo;s life-changing meeting with Gy&ouml;rgy Kurt&aacute;g in Budapest in September 2021, which left him with &ldquo;a feeling of lightness and joy&rdquo; and sparked memories of music he loved as a child. From Afar (a title inspired by Kurt&aacute;g&rsquo;s Aus der Ferne) is both a tribute to his hero and a return to his musical roots. &ldquo;It is more personal than my previous work,&rdquo; says &Oacute;lafsson. &ldquo;It connects very deeply to my childhood and it pays homage to one of my favourite composers of all time. Throughout the album, there are intimate conversations and messages from afar &ndash; closely knit canons, transcriptions and dedications, as well as distant echoes of nearly forgotten, ancient melodies.&rdquo;
In a bold move, &Oacute;lafsson has recorded the album twice &ndash; on grand piano and on felt-covered upright, offering the same music with two different timbres. He captures the intimacy granted by the upright, as well as the full palette possible with the grand piano. &Oacute;lafsson&rsquo;s own childhood was marked by his relationship with two such pianos: his parents&rsquo; grand piano (which they bought before they could afford a house!) and an old upright piano he was given at the age of seven and whose &ldquo;warm, dreamy&rdquo; sound he grew to love as he practised Schumann, Bach and Mozart in his bedroom. Kurt&aacute;g himself often recorded on felted pianos for variations of dynamics and tone.
Exploring such evocative themes as home, childhood and family, the album features Hungarian and Icelandic folk songs, nature-inspired works, interwoven homages and three previously unreleased transcriptions by &Oacute;lafsson: the Adagio from Bach&rsquo;s Sonata for solo violin in C&nbsp;major, Mozart&rsquo;s Laudate Dominum &ndash; which he dedicates to Kurt&aacute;g &ndash; and Icelandic composer Sigvaldi Kaldal&oacute;ns&rsquo; Ave Maria (the first work &Oacute;lafsson ever transcribed). Ave Maria is the first single from the album &ndash; a musical prayer which &Oacute;lafsson performed as Lockdown Artist in Residence for BBC Radio 4&rsquo;s Front Row in 2020, broadcasting live from an empty Harpa concert hall in Reykjav&iacute;k and bringing solace to millions of listeners around the world.
&Oacute;lafsson performs with his wife, Halla Oddn&yacute; Magn&uacute;sdottir, in Kurt&aacute;g&rsquo;s transcription of Bach&rsquo;s three-handed arrangement of Trio Sonata No.&nbsp;1, which the composer used to perform with his late wife, M&aacute;rta. Gy&ouml;rgy Kurt&aacute;g, in turn, recently dedicated this transcription to &Oacute;lafsson. Additionally, Magn&uacute;sdottir and &Oacute;lafsson duet on Kurt&aacute;g&rsquo;s Twittering. Also on the album is the world premiere recording of Thomas Ad&egrave;s&rsquo; The Branch, an otherworldly waltz written specially for &Oacute;lafsson.
From Afar is the latest recording from the &ldquo;new superstar of classical piano&rdquo; (Daily Telegraph) which has seen the Icelander achieve over 400 million career streams and top classical charts around the world; win Gramophone Artist of the Year (2019), BBC Music Magazine Album of the Year (2019) for Johann Sebastian Bach and the Opus Klassik Solo Recording Instrumental award (twice). He has performed at many of the world&rsquo;s major international venues including the Royal Albert Hall and Carnegie Hall and, in the coming months, opens the classical music seasons at the Southbank Centre in London and Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, and debuts with the Berlin Philharmonic and New York Philharmonic orchestras.

Víkingur Ólafsson announces new album 'Mozart & Contemporaries'

After the global success of V&iacute;kingur &Oacute;lafsson&rsquo;s recordings of Philip Glass &middot; Piano Works, Johann Sebastian Bach, and Debussy &middot; Rameau (with 225 million career streams and 320K albums sold), the multi-award-winning pianist now turns his attention to the music of Mozart.
For his latest album, &Oacute;lafsson presents some of his favourite Mozart keyboard works in the company of pieces by a selection of the composer&rsquo;s leading contemporaries. Juxtaposing works by Mozart, Haydn and C.P.E. Bach with rarely-recorded Galuppi and Cimarosa, Mozart &amp; Contemporaries dispels the image of Mozart as the angelic and prodigious idiot savant, instead presenting a mature composer through music primarily dating from the 1780s: a resourceful, hard-working adult who had come to know adversity. All is artfully brought together by &Oacute;lafsson&rsquo;s signature thought-provoking programming.
&Oacute;lafsson comments: &ldquo;I find this decade of Mozart&rsquo;s life and art endlessly fascinating. Mozart was not just a composer, and I feel that when he was writing for himself as a virtuoso pianist he indulged more than ever in the sublime playfulness that lay at the core of his originality and inventiveness. This is the period when Mozart was not just perfecting the Classical tradition but subtly subverting it&hellip; the shadows are darker, the nuances and ambiguities more profound.&rdquo;
&ldquo;V&iacute;kingur &Oacute;lafsson is revitalising classical music&rdquo; &ndash; The Economist
Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (1714&ndash;1788); Joseph Haydn (1732&ndash;1809); Baldassare Galuppi (1706&ndash;1785); and Domenico Cimarosa (1749&ndash;1801): &ldquo;Perhaps all four provide a chance to calibrate the contemporary ear towards the prevailing ideas, styles and tastes of the times&rdquo;, comments &Oacute;lafsson. &ldquo;It is my hope that this particular context, a mix of the celebrated and the obscure, can slightly alter our psychological attunement, removing some of the baggage we all bring with us to Mozart&rsquo;s music. This is in any case what I set out to do for myself: to approach even the best-known works of Mozart with the same freedom and childlike enthusiasm I felt upon discovering the rare and staggeringly lyrical works from the likes of Galuppi and Cimarosa.&rdquo;
Mozart: a bird of a different feather 
Mozart &amp; Contemporaries provides a fascinating snapshot of a decade when changes were brewing, composers were experimenting, and Mozart was writing such visionary pieces as the Sonata in C minor K457. The album &ndash; the pianist&rsquo;s fourth for Deutsche Grammophon &ndash; also includes &Oacute;lafsson&rsquo;s own transcriptions: haunting arrangements of two sonatas by Cimarosa, plus a masterful solo piano transcription of the great Adagio in E flat major from Mozart&rsquo;s String Quintet K516. To conclude the album, Mozart&rsquo;s Adagio in B minor K540 quietly transitions into Franz Liszt&rsquo;s transcription of the motet Ave verum corpus, composed in Mozart&rsquo;s final year. The vocal lines&rsquo; ascension to the piano&rsquo;s higher registers is viewed by &Oacute;lafsson as representing a final sense of death and transfiguration.
&Oacute;lafsson concludes, &ldquo;I feel like, when I play Mozart, that I get to know myself as a musician. I get to know sides that I didn&rsquo;t before. He seems to reflect your innermost core in music.&rdquo;
V&iacute;kingur &Oacute;lafsson&rsquo;s new album Mozart &amp; Contemporaries will be released on 3 September 2021 and <a class="_3E03H _3Pbn1" tabindex="-1" href="https://dg.lnk.to/olafsson-mozart" target="_blank" rel="noopener">can be pre-ordered here</a>.

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Title

CONTINUUM II Víkingur Ólafsson

Continuum II

With his album Continuum II, pianist V&iacute;kingur &Oacute;lafsson continues his extraordinary journey through the music of Johann Sebastian Bach, building on the remarkable success of 2024&rsquo;s Continuum.
Widely celebrated for making classical music &ndash; and Bach in particular &ndash; accessible and compelling to younger, culturally curious audiences, the Grammy-winning Icelandic pianist has become today&rsquo;s leading interpreter of Bach for a new generation. With more than 1.2 billion lifetime streams, he also remains the most-streamed living pianist for performances of Bach&rsquo;s music.
The album is available digitally, on CD and on LP. Order the CD and LP versions now in the&nbsp;<a href="https://store.deutschegrammophon.com/de-de/collections/vikingur-olafsson">DG Store</a>.

Víkingur Ólafsson - News | Deutsche Grammophon

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