When Vikingur fails Beethoven
Album Of The WeekFrom the Lebrecht Album of the Week:
Some of us remember a time when November landed with a thump of label adverts, big wodges of glossy pages that promised nirvana in the form of symphonic cycles from eminent maestros and piano sets from timeless immortals. Yeah, so last century… All we have now is a flutter of ephemeral pianists in concept albums of music that does not necessarily feel fully conceived.
Such is the case with the Icelander Vikingur Olafsson, a thoughtful man who tackles large themes …
Continues here.
En francais ici.
It’s incredible how he continues to put out album after album of slower, easier music and people do not see through it. His technique is severely lacking.
I once saw him in recital: he played his over-rich Bach in his typical way (mannered, although not technically bad), but then struggled through two early Beethoven sonatas at what I can only describe as the standard you would hear from a local music college. Full of wrong notes, insecure rhythms, weird mannerisms, so disruptive you cannot even talk about an interpretation.
Is he a bad pianist? No. But he’s clearly nowhere near the top hundred pianists performing today.
I’m an amateur classical pianist, have played a bit of jazz professionally and decided to study the 15th invention of Bach last year. Went to YouTube to check out a few performances to get some insights in to playing the trills which populate this piece. When I came across this gentleman’s version I was less than impressed. It seemed like he had taken the easy way out with the trills and some were simplified. Not a problem the piece sounded fine but not what I expected from someone touted as top-of-the-line.
Bravo!! I couldn’t agree more. I saw VO live in Boston (technically Cambridge) when he was touring his Mozart CD, and it was a terrible concert – one of the worst recitals I’ve heard. His technique is substandard (he could not play scales or runs evenly – I actually thought he must be nursing an injury that night, not imagining he could actually be that lacking – but as I later learned, that’s his skill-level), his playing is inexpressive converging on lifeless, and there was absolutely nothing in the recital that made me think he was someone I wanted to ever hear again. Truth be told, we wanted to leave at intermission – except there was none. Being in the middle of a long row of seats, had we got up and left mid-concert, we would have disrupted a lot of people. So we just suffered through it.
Never again.
He’s David Helfgott for a new generation.
Merci, Monsieur, de déshabiller ce pianiste.
Cannot find any musical explanation to Mr Olafsson huge career.
Would better investigate on other aspects as the musical ones.
In French we say: “Lancer quelqu’un comme une savonnette.”
I believe impresarios, music companies, festivals, concert halls directors.
“Dénicher la poule d’or poyr faire du fric.”
(Sorry for the bilingual comment which makes my point clearer)
“ All we have now is a flutter of ephemeral pianists in concept albums of music that does not necessarily feel fully conceived.” ALL we have now? Oh, come now, such a pompous generalization? Sure, most of us at a certain age would LOVE to have the artists of 30-50 years ago in our midst still, but it’s foolish to write the whole of the current crop off in one go. But, I’m agreed this gent is not at all a top tier artist, just an over-promoted, desperation grab at some sales, workaday finger wiggler.
Why is this your “Album of the Week” if it got such a bad review? Why not spend time promoting albums/artists that can actually benefit from the exposure?
Norman
You mention in your review that concept albums seem to be all the rage at the moment without identifying the concept behind this one. A large part of it is that the entire CD – all 16 tracks and 78 minutes – are in E minor or major. DG informs us that this links to Olaffson’s synesthesia. Personally I am not sure that I would want to hear that much consecutive E-centred music.
As reviewer, I feel that you had a duty to tell us whether you felt the concept worked.
In passing you mention that Bach French Suites (sic) are presented, but in fact only one Sarabande is played. By far the longest piece on the CD is Bach’s fascinating Sixth Partita which you didn’t discuss at all.
I walked out of a recital in the Sheldonian at the interval: at 2 of 3 concerts of his I attended he banged the keyboard as if he was a sheet-metal worker, unmusical and unpleasant.
Excuse me, you “did it again” 3 or 4 times?
Che pazienza. O speranza.
I must say that I liked his Debussy/Rameau album very much. Imaginative pairing and well played IMO.
I also liked the album cover design.
“””Publish or perish “”