VÍKINGUR ÓLAFSSON – NEW BACH EP, CONTINUUM, OUT NOW
THE PIANIST’S LATEST J.S. BACH RECORDINGS ARE NOW AVAILABLE AS A DIGITAL AND VINYL EP
LISTEN TO CONTINUUM HERE
“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 – SOMETHING THE GERMANS, INCIDENTALLY, CALL A ‘BACH’.”
VÍKINGUR ÓLAFSSON
18 OCTOBER 2024 (TORONTO, ON) — CONTINUUM, a new six-track EP of music by Johann Sebastian Bach from pianist Víkingur Ólafsson, is out now on Deutsche Grammophon. The release comes just days after Ólafsson’s recording of the same composer’s monumental Goldberg Variations was honoured with the prestigious OPUS KLASSIK Bestseller of the Year award. CONTINUUM presents piano arrangements of six works by Bach, four of them realised by Ólafsson himself, and all of which he recorded at Reykjavík’s Harpa concert hall in January. The EP is part one of a new series of recordings in which the pianist continues his dialogue with Bach’s music and pays tribute to his genius. “Not a day goes by without me playing Bach on the piano,” says Ólafsson. “This is the first instalment in what will be an ongoing Bach diary.”
CONTINUUM is released digitally and on vinyl today, 18 October 2024, with a deluxe version available exclusively from the DG Store. The latter features a 180g crystal-clear vinyl disc; high-quality prints of the individual black-and-white covers produced for each track’s single release over the last few months; and an LP-format signed art card.
The gem-like recordings on CONTINUUM reveal, once again, the profound affinity Ólafsson has with the music of Bach. Among them are four of his own arrangements of movements from different cantatas: the bass aria “Es ist vollbracht” from BWV 159 and the choruses “Ich hatte viel Bekümmernis” from BWV 21, “Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen” from BWV 12 and “Nach dir, Herr, verlanget mich” from BWV 150.
The pianist has also recorded two arrangements by other composers. He is joined by his wife, Halla Oddný Magnúsdottir, in a four-hands version of the chorale prelude “Das alte Jahr vergangen ist”, BWV 614, created by the legendary Hungarian composer György Kurtág, and rounds off the EP with a reading of the sacred song “Komm, süßer Tod”, BWV 478, as arranged by Harold Bauer (1873-1951). This last track is also issued as a single today, alongside the EP release.
Ólafsson’s Goldberg Variations recording came out last October to unanimous critical acclaim. Chosen as a “best of 2023” 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 Ólafsson’s audience on social media and led to his becoming the most streamed living Bach pianist of 2023. His six‑continent, 90‑date, season-long Goldberg Variations tour, which began and ended at Schloss Elmau in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, earned him huge audience ovations and critical praise at every performance.
Víkingur Ólafsson is one of the most sought-after artists on the global stage today. His many accolades include three previous OPUS KLASSIK awards, CoScan’s International Nordic Person of the Year (2023) and the Rolf Schock Prize for Music (2022). His DG recordings – Philip Glass Piano Works (2017), Johann Sebastian Bach (2018), Debussy · Rameau (2020), Mozart & Contemporaries (2021), From Afar (2022) and Bach · Goldberg Variations (2023) – have captured the public and critical imagination and led to career streams so far of almost one billion.