Beethoven, Bach & Schubert: Opus 109 – Vikingur Olafsson | CD, Deutsche Grammophon

Recent GRAMMY®-winning pianist Víkingur Ólafsson releases his new album Opus 109. At the heart of the project is Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 30 in E major, Op. 109, a masterpiece of the composer’s late period, which Víkingur places in an illuminating and musically thrilling temporal dialogue, tracing the lineages that converge on this beloved beacon of the piano literature.

While the pianist considers Bach as a vital precursor to Op. 109, represented on the album by three works including the monumental Partita No. 6, he also feels that Beethoven’s own Sonata No. 27 in E minor, Op. 90 acted not only as a precursor of Op. 109 but also as a direct influence on Schubert, in particular his early two-movement Sonata in E minor, D. 566.

These two Beethoven and single Schubert sonatas form the conceptual spine of the programme. Yet Ólafsson notes that both composers confront Bach “as every great composer must.” The whole work is in the key realm of E, both major and minor modes, which for the pianist, who has synaesthesia, makes it full of lush and vibrant shades of green.