Album out now: Víkingur Ólafsson "Continuum II"

A new album of music by J.S. Bach, including original keyboard works and Ólafsson's own new arrangements and transcriptions recorded entirely in his new home studio in Iceland. Listen to Continuum II here

A new performance video for J.S. Bach’s Erbarm dich mein, o Herre Gott, BWV 721 (performed on piano) is available here

“Bach was writing for all of us, for the future”

Víkingur Ólafsson

Having played something by Bach every day for over 30 years, Víkingur Ólafsson calls J.S. Bach’s music the one constant factor in his life. “Bach has become my diary,” he says. Ólafsson now presents CONTINUUM II, the next instalment to his 2024 release, CONTINUUM, and the first full album recorded entirely in his new home studio in Iceland. The programme ranges from pedagogical preludes to chorale transcriptions, via concerto movements and more.

Since CONTINUUM II is his first “album domesticum”, Ólafsson was keen that it should feature some of his favourite Hausmusik – Bach chorales. He has transcribed six such pieces for his instrument, including Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern, BWV 436; Welt, ade!, BWV 27/VI; and Es ist genug, BWV 60/V. The pianist has recorded both grand and upright piano versions of his own arrangement of Bach’s Air on the G String (the better-known title of the Air from Orchestral Suite No. 3) for the album. He dedicated his score to fellow composer György Kurtág as a 100th birthday present earlier this year.

Also to be heard here are the Largo from Keyboard Concerto No. 5 in F minor; Ólafsson’s arrangement of the Adagio from Violin Sonata No. 5 in F minor, for piano and string quintet, and the Larghetto from Keyboard Concerto No. 1 in D major, arranged by Bach himself from a Vivaldi original.

Finally, and encapsulating the domestic spirit of CONTINUUM II, Ólafsson performs six of the preludes Bach designed as practice pieces for his pupils, including his own children. As the pianist points out, their brevity is not to be mistaken for superficiality. “Each is an inspired miniature, a complete musical story in itself,” says Ólafsson. “Recorded here on the grand piano, they remind me that some of Bach’s most profound thoughts are also among his most compact.”