Page 494 - Aldeburgh Festival 2022 FINAL COVERAGE BOOK

Keyboard Sonata No.55 in A minor
Haydn – Sonata in B minor No.47 Hob XVI:32

Glaciers, volcanoes and geysers are among the most celebrated natural wonders
of Iceland. A lesser known, but equally awe-inspiring phenomenon is 38-year-
old Reykjavik-born pianist Víkingur Ólafsson. Since his exclusive 2016 signing
with Deutsche Grammophon, Ólafsson’s award-winning CDs of the piano works
of Philip Glass, his transcriptions of Bach organ works, and his fresh renditions
of pieces by Debussy and Rameau have heralded the arrival of a major new
talent. Ólafsson’s most recent album, Mozart and
Contemporaries, contextualises the master’s piano works with those of other

composers of the period, specifically ‘Papa’ Haydn, CPE Bach, Domenico
Cimarosa and Baldassare Galuppi. The contents of this CD, played in the same
order, comprised Ólafsson’s debut Aldeburgh recital which was divided into
two seamless halves, each of which was uninterrupted by applause until the
conclusion. This made for a fluid performance which combined flawless
technique and luminous beauty.

Like a stand-up comedian, microphone in hand, Ólafsson warms up his
audience with a droll, self-effacing introduction to the world of ‘Wolfie and Co’.
He endearingly recounts how, as a child pianist of equivalent age, he was
overwhelmed by stories of Mozart the child prodigy. It took years of practice,
he confesses, to divest himself of the accumulated ‘baggage,’ to ‘deconstruct the
Mozart myth’, to confront himself ‘in the mirror of Mozart’s music’, and only
then to pay homage to the man he only half-jokingly described as ‘a late
bloomer’. Ólafsson is described by some as Iceland’s Glenn Gould, but the
comparison is inapt. There is nothing wayward or eccentric in his
interpretations or performance, he doesn’t hum along to the music, and most
importantly, unlike Gould, he loves playing Mozart.

The first part of the programme, Ólafsson informed us, would represent Mozart
‘at his most playful and experimental’, although he chose to begin his recital

with a shimmering, almost spectral account of the Andante spiritoso from
Galuppi’s Piano Sonata No.9 in F minor. He turned next to Mozart’s deceptively
simple Rondo in F, K.494, its opening bars familiar to those with painful
memories of childhood piano lessons. In Ólafsson’s hands, the piece was played
with crystalline purity and effortless precision. He then embarked on Rondo 11
in D minor by CPE Bach, a composer greatly revered by Mozart. With bowed
head close to the keyboard, powerful fingering and subtle modulation, Ólafsson
managed to capture the rich texture of a mighty organ as the work’s grand
toccata-like structure gradually unfolded. Cimarosa’s Keyboard Sonata No.42 in
D minor, arranged by Ólafsson came next, providing a contrasting mood of