MOZART & CONTEMPORARIES—Víkingur Ólafsson, piano
We are told incessantly the classical record business is dying. I’ve been hearing it for decades—the epitaph is too often written and always wrong. Happily, mainstream companies like eternal Deutsche Grammophon (DG) and the plethora of quality boutique companies such as Cedille, TRPTK, Eudora, Pentatone, Resonus, BIS, CPO, Simax, Ondine, and many more, prove these epitaphs are fake news. In fact, right now, we’re in a pretty healthy situation.
DG has been top of the classical record company heap almost since its inception 124 years ago, snagging the best soloists, conductors and orchestras, at least the European variety. Recently, DG has slowed down the sheer volume of releases of all classical styles, especially expensive opera, replaced by artists targeting the new wave, minimalism, collaboration, etc.
One of the talented new artists DG signed (2016) is the Icelandic-born, Juilliard-trained pianist Víkingur Ólafsson. He began his recording life in 2009, self published on his Dirrindí label. I’ve not heard those CDs, but some Twitter buzz alerted me to this, his 5th and latest album for DG, MOZART & CONTEMPORARIES.
Please note the specific billing and font size in the lead photo. Mozart is second to no one. And, as it turns out from the sounds of this album, the billing is prophetic.
There is no doubt this cleverly-themed album accomplishes several things: it continues the pianist’s stellar reputation as a sensitive, technically brilliant artist and his ability to nail down repertoire for new, interesting releases (previous DG CDs include a Phillip Glass recording and one pairing Debussy with Rameau). He introduces the listener to known and lesser known contemporaries of Mozart, and offers insight to the compositional styles of the day. It’s a delightful disc and is very accomplished both as performance and recording (Harpa Hall, Reykjavík).
We’ll get to Mozart, but his chosen contemporaries include Baldassare Galuppi (1706—1785), a Venetian who developed quite a European career for himself and represented here by the opening movements of his delightful Piano Sonata No.9 in F minor and Piano Sonata No. 34 in C minor. Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach and Haydn, the former, admired by Mozart (‘He is the father, we are the children’) and the latter, his great mentor, are represented with exquisite examples, including Haydn’s Keyboard Sonata in B minor H. 16/32 and CPE Bach’s Rondo II in D minor, H 290. All selections, including two by Cimarosa, are played with passion and crystalline beauty by Ólafsson. So good, I couldn’t imagine two other great DG artists, Pollini or Michelangeli, playing these pieces better.
Much of the recording’s repertoire was unknown to me, even some of the Mozart, also, the Haydn Sonata and the CPE Bach gem.
The artist seemed to enjoy the quality of my playback when I teased this review on Twitter. Notice the Qobuz/Roon file HiRes 24/192 on my reference MBL N31. The sound was extraordinary.
At first, I let the stream play uninterrupted, listening for the master interspersed with his contemporaries. I’d be listening intently to something wonderful, then the next track would begin and almost instantly my ears would perk up at the unmissable inspiration, the transcendent melodies, the exquisite harmony and the flawless form of a Mozart work. Each, a unique gem. What was it one prominent classical music critic on YouTube said recently, ‘All Mozart sounds the same’?
The Mozart choices follow no specific Köchel chronology or composition date, more, a clever mix by Ólafsson. His few arrangements, two Cimarosa and one Mozart, work well for the piano. Only his very slow version of Liszt’s arrangement of Mozart’s vocal Ave verum corpus is a miss, although the bell-like sonority he produces is mesmerizing.
Ólafsson is a born Mozartian in the style of Perahia and Brendel. He loves the intimacy and scale of these works, and though not representive of Mozart’s very late seminal masterpieces, they all offer the qualities I listed above. As such, Mozart’s Rondo’s in F Major (K. 494) and D Major (K. 485), Fantasia in D minor (K. 397), and the 14th and 16th Piano Sonatas (K. 457 and K. 450) receive wonderful, deeply felt performances.
Purchasers will enjoy the theme of this album and the glorious sounds contain within. It enhances Ólafsson‘s reputation and places him prominently on DG’s list of the finest young pianists such as Daniil Trifonov, Jan Lisiecki, Yuja Wang, Seong-Jin Cho and others playing before the public. Very highly recommended.
Release: Sept 3, 2021
Label: Deutsche Grammophon (DG)
UPC: 00028948605255
