Víkingur Ólafsson BACH REWORKS / PART 2

Possessing a rare combination of passionate musicality, explosive virtuosity and intellectual curiosity, pianist Víkingur Ólafsson has been heralded “Iceland’s Glenn Gould” by the New York Times (Anthony Tommasini, August 2017). Before lighting up the international scene in 2016, Ólafsson won all the major prizes in his native country, including four Musician of the Year prizes at the Icelandic Music Awards, and the Icelandic Optimism Prize.

In September 2018 Víkingur Ólafsson released his new album on Deutsche Grammophon, Johann Sebastian Bach, featuring an eclectic selection of the composer’s keyboard works. In an ingeniously woven tapestry of diverse original compositions as well as transcriptions from different eras, Ólafsson’s “inspired playing makes Bach more human than we’ve heard in a long time” (Süddeutsche Zeitung, 2018). The Bach album follows on from the global success (“Breathtakingly brilliant pianist” (Gramophone) of the Philip Glass Etudes, Ólafsson’s debut recording for the label after signing as an exclusive recording artist in 2016.

Víkingur Ólafsson BACH REWORKS / PART 1

Icelandic pianist Víkingur Ólafsson began making his mark on the wider classical music world in the mid-2010s, after winning several major arts prizes in his homeland.
Ólafsson began his studies at home in Iceland, then earned his bachelor's and master's degrees from Juilliard, where his primary teachers were Jerome Lowenthal and Robert McDonald. By 2017, he had premiered five piano concertos, working directly with composers such as Philip Glass, Daníel Bjarnason, and Haukur Tómasson, whose concerto he premiered during the 2016-2017 season. He has also collaborated on projects with visual artists such as Roman Signer and Lillevän, and musicians like Sayaka Shoji, Pekka Kuusisto, and Björk.

Ólafsson's recital programs are thoughtfully assembled, linking music by theme, historical context, tonality, or a combination of elements. That kind of care and insight led him to host a TV series about classical music for the Icelandic National Broadcasting Service entitled Útúrdúr ("Out-of-tune," 2013-2014), and to him being named artistic director of Iceland's Vinterfest, taking over in 2016 from the music festival's founding director, Martin Fröst. Ólafsson is also founder and artistic director of the Reykjavik Midsummer Music festival.

Having by then released three albums on his own, including Schubert's Winterreise with bass Kristinn Sigmundsson, he signed an exclusive contract with Deutsche Grammophon in November 2016. His first release on the label, Philip Glass: Piano Works, appeared in January 2017. Later that same year, he was the featured pianist on Dario Marianelli's score for the Academy Award-nominated film Darkest Hour, about Winston Churchill.  (Patsy Morita)

Hans-Joachim Roedelius / Arnold Kasar EINFLUSS

With delicate piano themes and atmospheric electronic sounds, Hans-Joachim Roedelius & Arnold Kasar develop a unique chemistry. The fact that they are part of different generations of musicians is one of the reasons for the uniqueness and the magic of their encounter.

Roedelius is one of the forefathers of Kosmische and Krautrock. With his bands Cluster and Harmonica, he played a major role in the development of these movements. Roedelius was formed by the political and social uprising of the late sixties and the seventies. Today Roedelius is able to look back on more than a hundred releases and collaborations ranging from his longtime companion Dieter Moebius to acclaimed international artists such as Brian Eno or younger musicians like Tim Story.

Arnold Kasar is almost thirty years younger than Roedelius, he is a child of Berlin´s crossover scene of the 1990s. He broke the line between electronic dance music and jazz, he played with Micatone, Nylon and Friedrich Lichtenstein. As a session musician, arranger and producer, he contributed to many releases of the influential Berlin label Sonar Kollektiv.

Kasar is a classically trained pianist, Roedelius did not even learn to read music. Their approach is as different as it can be, yet they share an openness to musical forms and their collaborative partners. In their joint sessions in Baden near Vienna, Roedelius quickly decided he wants to play the piano. Kasar had the idea to prepare the piano with sheets of felt, creating the unique, tender, intimate sound of the album. “Joachim [Roedelius] has a nice, soft stroke”, explains Kasar: “He never had a piano lesson in his life. He does not compose, yet he does something with the piano which is similar to what he does with the synthesizers. I cannot explain it, but it touches something inside of me.” Kasar responds in the most immediate fashion to Roedelius' piano play using his electronic instruments.

Within three days more than thirty pieces were produced. “We’ve needed our entire lifetimes to get there”, Roedelius smiles. “Einfluss” is not about technology, not about precession, not about structure, but about flow. Where others musicians seek total control, Roedelius and Kasar let themselves go. In this way, they can open up to and respond to the other player in an unique way. It is not a matter of demonstrating some kind of craft, to prove one's ability to play the piano or to compose impressive music. Rather, they want the listener to share a joint experience with them. “The special thing about it is that we did not intend to make something special”, smiles Roedelius.