Inspired by Bach : Víkingur Ólafsson
Inspired by Bach : Víkingur Ólafsson
"Intet nytt under solen", Bach er og har vært inspirasjonskilde for svært mange skapende mennesker - uavhengig av kunstform og sjanger. Albert Schweitzer mente alt fører til Bach, i forståelsen at Bach var et vendepunkt som alt pekte frem mot før, og alt i ettertid pekte tilbake til.
"Everything is there in Bach´s music"
Ólafsson teamed up with director Magnús Leifsson to shoot the video in a fish processing plant in Iceland, complete with grand piano. They use the fish, an early Christian symbol, to allude to the mysticism and timelessness of Bach's music - as changeable as water, it has to be understood at a metalevel, given the many different ways in which composition, transcription and performance can be interwoven. "Everything is there in Bach's music," says the pianist, who transports the composer's keyboard writing to new shores on his latest recording. Icelandic pianist Víkingur Ólafsson releases video featuring music from his new album, Johann Sebastian Bach.
I Sandefjord nevnte du likevel én moderne Bach-innspilling som har gjort inntrykk på deg?
Ja, det er Bach-platen til min gode kollega Víkingur Ólafsson. Den fikk meg til å tenke at det virkelig går an å lage en fullstendig overbevisende plate i vår tid med Bach, på flygel. Og den kan være helt annerledes enn Glenn Gould.
- Leiv Ove Andsnes i intervju med Alf van der Hagen i kulturmagasinet PLOT
Everything is there in Bach´s music
- Víkingur Ólafsson
It would all mean nothing without Bach
- Víkingur Ólafsson
I think Bach is the only composer that I can probably play the whole day without ever becoming sick of him
- Víkingur Ólafsson
This album is a bit of an exploration of Bach of the different generations - I wanted to look at he road less travelled
- Víkingur Ólafsson
In a landmark move, Ólafsson devoted his entire 2023/24 season to a world tour of a single work: J. S. Bach's Goldberg Variations, performing it 88 times to great critical acclaim.
Goldbergvariasjonene i Bærum kulturhus
Víkingur Ólafsson startet sin verdensturne med 88 konserter og fremførelser av Goldbergvariasjonene i Bærum kulturhus 26. september 2023:
Because making the work our own is the enduring and unique challenge of the Goldberg Variations. In a work "not of an age, but for all time," to borrow Ben Jonson's words on Shakespeare, we performers must somehow feel like we have taken part in its creation, that we have reinvented it in some way for our contemporaries. It truly is a performer's work if there ever was one, and as such, the title fits perfectly.
- Fra intervju i The Guardian
I was inclined to think of the work as a grand, commanding cathedral of music; now I find another metaphor more apt: a grand oak tree, organic, living and vibrant.
- Fra intervju i The GuardianOnce those deceptively facile opening notes have been struck, there is no place to hide through 75 minutes of the most wildly virtuosic keyboard music ever written.
- Fra intervju i The Guardian
'An encyclopedia of how to think and dream on the piano': Víkingur Ólafsson on Bach's Goldberg Variations
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Bach is the musical love of my life. I cannot go more than a couple of days without playing his works. For me, Bach's music does not belong to a bygone era, it belongs to the here and now. That's one of the reasons he fascinates every new generation of musicians – because of how inherently open this music is to new ideas, styles and emotions. His music always reflects the world it finds itself in, past, present and future.
- Fra intervju i The Guardian