Philip Glass Piano Works by Víkingur Ólafsson
In my Spotify Wrapped this year I was reminded that I’ve been obsessively listening to this album of Philip Glass piano works performed by the Icelandic pianist Víkingur Ólafsson.
This year Ólafsson was touring the world playing one of my very favorite pieces of music, the Bach Goldberg Variations, which I first fell in love with as part of the Open Goldberg Variations project. I was able to catch one of his performances in Berkeley in May, and it was incredible.
In the summer, when planning a flight abroad for work, I was searching Spotify for albums to download and listen to on the flight. I came across this album of Glass’ piano works and downloaded it.
I’d recommend the exhilarating Etude 6 as a good starting point if you want to have a listen. The combination of blistering tempo and textual clarity must be heard to be believed.
Update March 14th 2025: On March 2nd my wife and I went to see Ólafsson and Yuja Wang play a concert of piano duos at San Francisco Symphony. When the concert was scheduled to start, a staff member at the symphony came out on stage and announced that Wang was ill and would be unable to perform. However, he added, Ólafsson had graciously offered to perform his now Grammy winning interpretation of Goldberg Variations instead. The performance was one of the most magical and captivating I’ve ever attended. For a review of the performance with an accounting of the dramatic last minute replacement see KQED’s review of the evening. Other reviews of the evening: