Event info

Víkingur Ólafsson, recently named Artist of the Year at the 2019 Gramophone Awards in London, opens the Reykjavík Art Festival 2020 with a solo recital in Harpa Concert Hall. Earlier this year, Ólafsson won two BBC Music Magazine Awards, for Best Solo Album and Album of the Year in all categories, as well as being honoured with Germany’s Opus Klassik Award and two Icelandic Music Awards.

In Reykjavík Art Festival’s opening concert, Ólafsson will perform a unique programme from his upcoming album, set to be released in Spring 2020 by Deutsche Grammophon. The first part fascinatingly juxtaposes the works of Claude Debussy and Jean-Philippe Rameau, two giants of French music, profoundly connected despite being seperated by 150 years. In the second part, he will perform one of the greatest works of Russian music, Pictures at an Exhibition by Modest Mussorgsky, in a magnificent transcription by Vladimir Horowitz.