Fresh, emotional, crystalline as glacial water - these are words to describe Icelandic pianist Vikingur Ólafsson's stunning recording, released this season by Deutsche Grammophon, of music of Johann Sebastian Bach. "Bach is a free country." So writes Ólaffson, quoting a "wise man" at the beginning of his own extensive liner notes to the album. This intriguing idea encapsulates the interpretive dilemma and opportunity facing every performer of Bach's music - that although "the musical structures are very detailed, there are hardly any indications as to how you should go about shaping them in performance." p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #4d4d4d} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #4d4d4d; min-height: 14.0px} Vikingur Olafsson - Johann Sebastian Bach is the WRTI: Philadelphia 'Classical Album of the Week'. SEE THE PAGE

If anyone doubts the astonishing range and quality of classical music recordings being made today – and, I hope, regular readers of these pages would harbour no such perception – then they should really take heed of this month's releases. Choosing the Editor's Choices is always a difficult task, but this month it was doubly so given just how many recordings had drawn such heart-felt plaudits from our critics. That two major labels should produce extraordinary piano records from leading young artists as different in approach as Igor Levit's deeply thought-out meditation on life, featuring music from Bach to Busoni, and Víkingur Ólafsson's beautifully coloured exploration of, again, Bach, is a powerful reflection of the industry's continuing commitment to not just nurturing the next generation, but to giving them the platforms their music-making deserves. Both artists share an aversion to allowing either themselves or their repertoire to be pigeonholed. At a Deutsche Grammophon event this month Ólafsson reflected on this, citing his upbringing in Iceland as a part of shaping this mindset. In a small country, he said, you simply can't isolate yourself by style, and many musicians happily genre-hop, even from day to day (including, apparently, players stepping between orchestra and heavy metal bands), enriching themselves, their audiences and their art form as they do so. It's a mindset we see more and more among the younger generation of musicians as streaming continues to break down barriers. Levit's album, meanwhile, movingly closes with a work by the jazz pianist and composer Bill Evans.  Speaking of championing young artists, 21 years ago Sony Classical backed a 17-year-old violinist and brought the world her remarkable performances of three of Bach's six sonatas and partitas. Now, courtesy this time of Decca, Hilary Hahn completes the set for us. The result is Bach-playing of breathtaking accomplishment. (And, again, Bach: what is it about this composer that inspires artists to such heights and, indeed, depths?). A superb Recording of the Month.  READ THE FULL Gramophone ARTICLE

Víkingur Ólafsson is a musical free spirit with a mission. He first made the classical world sit up and listen in early 2017 with his recording of solo piano works by Philip Glass – a fascinating journey through the time and space of their minimalist structures. Glass is now followed by Bach. Ólafsson's second Deutsche Grammophon album, the pithily entitled Bach, contains a mixture of original works and transcriptions, which the pianist (known as the Glenn Gould of Iceland!) has woven together in intriguing style. For the Week of October 22nd, Víkingur Ólafsson's brilliant take on Bach is KDFC: San Francisco 'Album Of the Week'

Víkingur Ólafsson is a musical free spirit with a mission. He first made the classical world sit up and listen in early 2017 with his recording of solo piano works by Philip Glass – a fascinating journey through the time and space of their minimalist structures. Glass is now followed by Bach. Ólafsson's second Deutsche Grammophon album, the pithily entitled Bach, contains a mixture of original works and transcriptions, which the pianist (known as the Glenn Gould of Iceland!) has woven together in intriguing style. For the Week of October 22nd, Víkingur Ólafsson's brilliant take on Bach is KUSC: Los Angeles 'Album Of the Week' p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #606060} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #606060; min-height: 14.0px}

After completing his studies, Icelandic pianist Víkingur Ólafsson became a "student" of Bach and immersed himself in his music. "He was just the teacher I needed: the kind that teaches you to be your own teacher." His stunning new recording of original and transcribed works by Bach is WCRB's CD of the Week. Víkingur Ólafsson begins his notes for his new Bach CD by remembering some wise words given to him when he was a young student: Bach is a free country. The meaning? For those who want to bring Bach's music to life, "every element is up for debate." Bach tells you almost nothing about how to play his music. Tempos, articulations, dynamics – all are left to the imagination of the performer. It's essential to have absorbed what's known about the styles and trends of Bach's time. But after that comes a whole lot of soul-searching for what feels and sounds right. Vikingur Olafsson - Johann Sebastian Bach is WCRB: Boston 'CD of the Week.' READ THE FULL WCRB: Boston REVIEW

Following his critically acclaimed recording of piano works by Philip Glass, Icelandic pianist Víkingur Ólafsson has released his second album, a collection of both well-known and rarely performed works by Johann Sebastian Bach. Renowned for his innovative music projects, Ólafsson offers listeners a very personal vision of Bach's intricate keyboard music, artfully weaving Bach's original works together with transcriptions by Busoni, Kempff, Ziloti, Rachmaninoff, and Ólafsson himself. Víkingur Ólafsson - Music of Bach is WFMT: Chicago 'Featured New Release'

Contemporary composer, singer-songwriter, pianist and producer Agnes Obel has signed exclusively to Deutsche Grammophon. Obel joins artists on the label including Max Richter, Víkingur Ólafsson, Anoushka Shankar and the late Jóhann Jóhannsson.  The signing will also involve Deutsche Grammophon joining forces with Blue Note for North American releases Don Was, president Blue Note, said: "Agnes is a profoundly imaginative and soulful artist. All of us at Blue Note Records are honoured and thrilled about the opportunity to present her music to US audiences. I'm really looking forward to hearing her new music and am certain that whatever she creates next will emanate from an inspired, honest and unique place." Obel added: "I am very happy to be working with Deutsche Grammophon and Blue Note, two legendary labels with a huge history. I am really looking forward to this next exciting chapter."  READ THE FULL Music Week ARTICLE      p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #606060} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #606060; min-height: 14.0px} span.Apple-tab-span {white-space:pre}

In spite of the back seat classical music often takes in America in terms of sales figures and sheer visibility, there's nothing wrong with the music itself. This list of 10 albums is a testament to today's vibrant performers and composers, and of course some of the masters from the past. The year began with a celebration of the dean of minimalism, Philip Glass, turning 80 and an extraordinary tribute by pianist Víkingur Ólafsson. It ended with a stentorian paean to maximalism in a gripping account of Les Troyens, Berlioz's grandest of grand operas. In between were great performances by percussionists, choral groups, more pianists, opera singers and one sweet and agile string quartet. Released Jan. 27, four days before Philip Glass turned 80, this album serves as a brilliant birthday present to the composer and a perfect entry point for newcomers or even naysayers. Its sheer beauty may surprise you. No current pianist tackling this increasingly popular repertoire offers the consistent transparency and keen musicianship of Icelandic pianist Víkingur Ólafsson. On the album, he offers half of Glass' 20 piano etudes, but begins with "Opening" from Glassworks. Every inner voice is not only clearly audible, but individually shaped. It might be the most haunted and naturally detailed performance so far. The Études have their own personalities and challenges. No. 9 is especially manic in Ólafsson's hands, while No. 2 rolls out in liquid waves like a Debussy Arabesque. No. 14 winks and nods and the rapid fire scales in No. 13 are proof of Ólafsson's precision. Then there's No. 20, which sounds like no other Glass solo piano work. Devoid of the usual repetitions and with aching melancholy, it sounds like Philip Glass meets Franz Schubert in outer space, as bass notes smolder and gorgeous melodies soar and evaporate. The album also features distinctive arrangements of No. 2, No. 5 and "Opening" featuring Ólafsson and the top-notch Siggi String Quartet. SEE ALL NPR Music's Top 10 Classical Albums Of 2017 p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 11.0px Helvetica} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 11.0px Helvetica; min-height: 13.0px} p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; color: #263e0f} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; color: #263e0f; min-height: 14.0px}

It's easier to quip about Philip Glass' music than to write intelligently about it. But Víkingur (Heiðar) Ólafsson, the young and trendy Icelandic pianist, shows how it's done in the liner notes to his first release on Deutsche Grammophon. I first heard the Juilliard-taught student of Ann Schein and Seymour Lipkin when he was a stiff tween at the Icelandic Ambassador's residence. His image has changed, since, but the pianism was excellent then as now: His Glass Études (10 of 20) are supple and make this seemingly simple music shine and glitter. While "Opening" from Glassworks evokes the Philip Glass cliché in the piano version, its arrangement for piano and string quartet (Étude No.2 gets the same treatment) becomes an easily savored, filigreed highlight. The CD garnered a second-best four mentions in End-of-the-Year lists. SEE Forbes PAGE & WATCH VIDEO p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 11.0px Helvetica} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 11.0px Helvetica; min-height: 13.0px}

Music writers spend their days guiltily staring down literally dozens of unheard new recordings that pile up as the year goes on, with more coming in each day. So it has been an arduous and frustrating but also inspiring and illuminating exercise to narrow NYTimes favorites down to five each, for a list of 25 gorgeous releases that covers a huge amount of chronological and stylistic ground. 5 Crossover Media recordings made this year's list. They are... ‘CHOPIN EVOCATIONS' Daniil Trifonov, piano; Mahler Chamber Orchestra (Deutsche Grammophon). Do we need another recording of Chopin's piano concertos? Well, we need this one, because Mr. Trifonov plays them magnificently; because of illuminating chamber-orchestra arrangements by Mikhail Pletnev, who conducts; and because of Chopin-inspired works by Grieg, Barber and others that join. ANTHONY TOMMASINI PHILIP GLASS: Piano Works Vikingur Olafsson (Deutsche Grammophon). Mr. Glass's piano études have been criticized as unmusical, or even boring. But Mr. Olafsson's recording of 10, rich with interpretive depth and surprising turns, is nothing short of eye-opening. J.B. ‘HOMMAGE À BOULEZ' West-Eastern Divan Orchestra; Daniel Barenboim and Pierre Boulez, conductors (Deutsche Grammophon). Boulez, who died in 2016, gets quite the tribute here with more than two hours of music, including "Le Marteau Sans Maître." That score might frighten some young musicians; here, the contralto Hilary Summers and members of the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra are fearless. J.B. SIBELIUS: Piano Works Leif Ove Andsnes, piano (Sony Classical). Who knew? Sibelius, composer of seven visionary symphonies, wrote a sizable body of piano pieces that remain mostly neglected. The adventurous Mr. Andsnes discovers them on this exquisitely played album of beguiling, lyrical and quirky works. Even those with tame titles like "Impromptu" startle you. A.T. TCHAIKOVSKY: Symphony No. 6 MusicAeterna; Teodor Currentzis, conductor (Sony Classical). Some listeners might find the approach here overblown. I do not. There is more cultivated Tchaikovsky out there, to be sure, and more precise, too, but none more faithful to his devastating purpose. The climaxes of the first movement feature some of the scariest conducting I have ever heard, the dark night of a soul pushed over the brink. D.A. ‘THE JOHN ADAMS EDITION' Berlin Philharmonic (Berliner Philharmoniker Recordings). This isn't one recording so much as a hefty collection of them from the 2016-17 season, when Mr. Adams was this orchestra's composer in residence (and occasional conductor). Some classic works are represented alongside more recent ones, led by Alan Gilbert, Gustavo Dudamel, Simon Rattle and Kirill Petrenko. JOSHUA BARONE ‘UNBOUND' Jasper String Quartet (Sono Luminus/New Amsterdam). This quartet's taste in repertoire runs toward post-Minimalist composers who work with melody - and an edge. The pop-style rhythmic fury of Judd Greenstein's "Four on the Floor" is exhilarating. Annie Gosfield's "The Blue Horse Walks on the Horizon" shows some of the same dramatic flair as her recent opera for the Los Angeles Philharmonic. S.C.W. SEE FULL NYTimes ARTICLE & LISTEN TO Playlist of the Best Classical Recordings of 2017 p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 11.0px Helvetica} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 11.0px Helvetica; min-height: 13.0px}

Philip Glass' 1982 album Glassworks saw the composer drawing toward shorter, more accessible song forms as delivery vehicles for his nearly mechanized sense of repetition. As played 35 years later by the Icelandic pianist Vikingur Olafsson on a fantastic album of works by Glass, the opening movement from Glassworks is the embodiment of hypnotic calm. The transformation comes from Olafsson's careful placement of emphasis within the repeating sets of triplets from which Glass built his work; the space and fluidity he introduces brings this venerable machine to life. -Jacob Ganz   SEE NPR PAGES p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px}

Vikingur Olafsson, who is widely considered Iceland's pre-eminent pianist, hasn't had music lessons since he graduated from the Juilliard School in 2008. He has taken part in a master class here and there, but these days, he says, he learns more by simply listening to his own recordings. "The way we hear music inside our heads is quite different from when you're listening to the playback," Mr. Olafsson, 33, said during a recent interview at Lincoln Center, where he is making his New York recital debut on Friday and Saturday at the Mostly Mozart Festival. "The way you perceive time, and the way it actually is." The technique seems to have paid off: In recent years, Mr. Olafsson has given the premieres of six piano concertos, including one conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen at the Los Angeles Philharmonic's Reykjavik Festival in April. And Philip Glass invited Mr. Olafsson to share the billing with him in a performance of his Études. This year, Mr. Olafsson released an album of Mr. Glass's piano works on Deutsche Grammophon. The record makes a strong impression in how much it contrasts with Mr. Glass's own performances. Listen to Mr. Glass's take on Étude No. 2 & read the New York Times Q&A p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Arial} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Arial; min-height: 11.0px}

Lincoln Center's Mostly Mozart Festival continues its 51st season with a Saturday, August 12, performance at the Stanley H. Kaplan Penthouse with the Icelandic star pianist Víkingur Ólafsson. Making his Mostly Mozart debut, Ólafsson will perform Bach's Partita No. 6, as well as Etudes by Philip Glass, with whom Ólafsson has collaborated closely. This year marks Glass's 80th birthday and Ólafsson's celebrated with a debut album on Deutsche Grammophon presenting selections of Philip Glass's Piano Etudes. Ólafsson's fascination with reinterpreting the Piano Etudesgrew as he toured and performed the works with Glass himself. "On the surface, they seem to be filled with repetitions. But the more one plays and thinks about them, the more their narratives seem to travel along in a spiral," he explains. "My approach to each of the etudes is to enable the listener to create his or her own personal space of reflection." SEE THE FULL BroadwayWorld PAGE p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Helvetica; min-height: 12.0px}

On Saturday, June 22, the Peabody Essex Museum in East Indian Square, Salem An Evening with Philip Glass and Matt Haimovitz in a program includes a world premiere, Glass's Partita No. 2 for Solo Cello, which he wrote in 2010 but which has remained unperformed until this concert. The program will also include "Mad Rush," for solo piano, selections from "Tissues," and "The Orchard," from Glass's collaborative score (with Foday Musa Suso) to Jean Genet's play "The Screens." The partita is part of an upcoming recording of Glass's cello compositions, available soon on Orange Mountain music label, which is led by Salem resident Richard Guérin. Glass will perform on piano at the concert, and with Guérin and Haimovitz, will participate in a pre-concert discussion about his work and the new recording. The new partita sat for years, unplayed. It took a 2015 visit from Haimovitz to Glass's studio to unearth it. Haimovitz says it "was a crime against music" that the piece would sit for so long, and worked through the piece with the composer. Haimovitz says the partita has a similar series of movements like the Bach suites, but rather than dance titles (Bourée, Gigue), Glass has simply numbered the movements. "There is nothing descriptive in the score," Haimovitz says. "Glass is a kindred spirit with Baroque composers, who give very little interpretive direction to the performer." Glass will forever be linked to the minimalist style, but Haimovitz points out "Philip has moved into a neo-Romantic mode with his late chamber works. Audiences may be surprised. READ THE FULL Wicked Local Maynard ARTICLE p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Arial} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Arial; min-height: 11.0px}

Icelandic pianist Víkingur Ólafsson pays tribute to the master of minimalism, Philip Glass, who turns 80 in 2017. Ólafsson was one of a handful of young pianists selected by Glass to perform all of his Études together in London, and the reviews were ecstatic. The Financial Times claimed, "Best of all was Ólafsson in the super-sensitive stillness of Étude 5." The Glass: Étude No 9 (2:32); Opening from Glassworks (6:39) on Víkingur Ólafsson new release - Philip Glass: Piano Works on Deutsche Grammophon is the WFMT: Chicago - Featured Release for TODAY!! FEBRUARY 18, 2017. p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Helvetica; min-height: 12.0px} span.s1 {text-decoration: underline}

p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Helvetica; min-height: 12.0px} span.Apple-tab-span {white-space:pre} Philip Glass turns 80 today and Second Inversion is celebrating in great style with a 24-hour streaming marathon of his music. Tune in all day! An early protagonist of the Minimalist movement, PG studied with Milhaud and Nadia Boulanger. His first job, assisting Ravi Shankar on a film soundtrack, heralded the start of his own successful cinema career, and to date he has scored over fifty movies. Early works tended to be abstract, but from the mid-1970s his attention shifted towards the stage. His first operatic triumph, Einstein on the Beach, did much to reinvigorate the international contemporary opera scene. Profoundly interested in traditional cultures, Glass often draws on Eastern traditions, as in Monsters of Grace (1997), a multimedia collaboration based on the writings of Rumi. To also celebrate, Víkingur Ólafsson's brand new, and debut album on Deutsche Grammophon, has the Icelandic pianist performing selections of Philip Glass's Piano Etudes. Ólafsson's fascination with reinterpreting the Piano Etudesgrew as he toured and performed the works with Glass himself. "On the surface, they seem to be filled with repetitions. But the more one plays and thinks about them, the more their narratives seem to travel along in a spiral," he explains. "My approach to each of the etudes is to enable the listener to create his or her own personal space of reflection."