Piano Solo – Víkingur Ólafsson

A few years ago, the phenomenal Icelandic pianist Víkingur Ólafsson filled Konserthuset with his performance of Bach’s Goldberg Variations, and he returned in the 2024/25 season as Artist-in-Residence. He then captivated audiences alongside the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra in Brahms’s First Piano Concerto and Beethoven’s Emperor Concerto.

We now look forward with great anticipation to welcoming Víkingur Ólafsson back once again, this time in a solo recital featuring piano sonatas by Beethoven interwoven with music by Bach and Schubert. A programme characterised throughout by lyrical depth and concentrated intimacy. A unifying thread runs through the concert, with all the works set in either E major or E minor.

Bach’s Prelude from Das Wohltemperierte Klavier is warm and inviting, while his Partita unfolds as a grand panorama rich in contrasts. The two Beethoven sonatas belong to his late period – No. 27 is concentrated and poetic, No. 30 one of his most visionary works. Schubert’s Sonata in E minor, by contrast, moves between light and darkness, with an undercurrent of reflection.