Pianist Víkingur Ólafsson Releases MOZART & CONTEMPORARIES On Deutsche Grammophon

Pianist Víkingur Ólafsson turns his hand to Mozart for his fourth album for Deutsche Grammophon, Mozart & Contemporaries, released today. The recording brings together nine pieces by Mozart with works by Cimarosa, Galuppi, C.P.E. Bach, and Haydn in a typically skilful and thought-provoking programme by Ólafsson - one that captures a moment of musical change and experimentation in the late eighteenth century.

As Ólafsson notes, "This is the period when Mozart was not just perfecting the Classical tradition but subtly subverting it. It is my hope that this particular context, a mix of the celebrated and the obscure, can slightly alter our psychological attunement, removing some of the baggage we all bring with us to Mozart's music."

Released alongside the album is a video created by French motion designer and illustrator Karim Dabbèche for its opening track: the Andante spiritoso from Galuppi's Piano Sonata No.9.

Mozart & Contemporaries offers an alternative to romantic views of Mozart as a divinely inspired genius. The album also features Ólafsson's own spellbinding transcriptions of Mozart's Adagio in E flat from the String Quintet K. 516 and of Liszt's Ave verum corpus.

Víkingur Ólafsson's new album follows his recent remarkable debut at the BBC Proms, for which he performed piano concertos by Mozart and J.S. Bach. Watch his Mozart encore.

About Víkingur Ólafsson
Víkingur Ólafsson made an unforgettable impact with the release of his first three albums - Philip Glass · Piano Works (2017), Johann Sebastian Bach (2018) and Debussy · Rameau (2020) - on Deutsche Grammophon, for whom he is an exclusive recording artist. The Debussy · Rameau project, which prompted the Daily Telegraph to call him "the new superstar of classical piano," has amassed almost 100K album sales and surpassed 75 million streams, bringing the total number of streams of Ólafsson's music to more than 227.5 million.

Ólafsson's multiple awards include the Opus Klassik Solo Recording Instrumental (piano) for two consecutive years (2019, 2020), Album of the Year at the BBC Music Magazine Awards 2019 and Gramophone magazine's 2019 Artist of the Year. The New York Times meanwhile dubbed him "Iceland's Glenn Gould".

In 2020 alone, he broadcast an eight-part series on Icelandic radio; presented his own primetime television series in Iceland called Music Bites; and created his own three-part series on BBC Radio 3, Transcribe, Transform. Ólafsson was also artist in residence for three months during lockdown on BBC Radio 4's flagship arts program, Front Row, broadcasting live, weekly performances from an empty Harpa concert hall in Reykjavík, reaching millions of listeners around the world.

Víkingur Ólafsson makes his BBC Proms debut on August 14, 2021 and will perform Mozart & Contemporaries at the International Piano Series at London's Southbank Centre on October 2, 2021. Learn more at www.vikingurolafsson.com.

Mozart & Contemporaries
1. BALDASSARE GALUPPI - Andante spiritoso from Piano Sonata No. 9 in F minor [2:05]
2. WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART - Rondo in F Major K 494 [6:05]
3. CARL PHILIPP EMANUEL BACH - Rondo II in D minor H 290 [3:26]
4. DOMENICO CIMAROSA (arr. Ólafsson) - Sonata No. 42 in D minor [2:24]
5. WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART - Fantasia in D minor K 397 (Fragment) [5:47]
6. WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART - Rondo in D Major K 485 [3:46]
7. DOMENICO CIMAROSA (arr. Ólafsson) - Sonata No. 55 in A minor [2:44]
JOSEPH HAYDN - Piano Sonata No. 47 in B minor
8. I. Allegro moderato [3:04]
9. II. Menuetto - Trio (Minore) [2:41]
10. III. Finale. Presto
11. WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART - Kleine Gigue in G Major K 574 [1:40]
WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART - Piano Sonata No .16 in C Major "Sonata facile" K 545
12. I. Allegro [3:00]
13. II. Andante [4:00]
14. III. Rondo. Allegretto [1:43]
15. WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART (arr. Ólafsson) - Adagio in E flat Major from String Quintet No. 3 in G minor K 516 [8:04]
16. BALDASSARE GALUPPI - Larghetto from Piano Sonata No. 34 in C minor [3:07]
WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART - Piano Sonata No. 14 in C minor K 457
17. I. Molto allegro [3:55]
18. II. Adagio [8:12]
19. III. Allegro assai [4:31]
20. WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART - Adagio in B minor K 540 [7:34]
21. WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART (transc. Liszt) - Ave verum corpus K 618 [4:02]

2021-2022 North American Tour Schedule
September 18-19, 2021
Ojai Music Festival | Ojai, CA

November 13-14, 2021
St. Louis Symphony Orchestra | St. Louis, MO

January 9-11, 2022
Schubert Club | Saint Paul, MN

February 18-20, 2022
Los Angeles Philharmonic | Los Angeles, CA

February 22, 2022
Carnegie Hall (Debut) | New York, NY

June 23-25, 2022
San Francisco Symphony | San Francisco, CA

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