Green is for go, Víkingur Ólafsson collecting another yellow label as he explores E-major and -minor, opening with a simple yet profound JSB Prelude that is utterly disarming. Beethoven’s Opus 90 Sonata is rough-and-tumble (in a good way) if a little brittle and some slight phrasal hesitations are more the pianist’s than the composer’s, yet the work is alive with incident and potential, with the proto-Schubert melody that purveys the second movement nicely shaped while flowing in tempo. The ‘real’ Schubert Sonata here, also in two movements, respectively teasing and songful, finds Ólafsson bringing forth delights. The chosen JSB Partita lasts half-an-hour across its seven movements, as sensitive and shapely, and as rhythmic and rumbustious, as needed, Ólafsson lucid throughout while creating a big statement. Opus 109 can only mean Beethoven, rough-hewn and searching from Ólafsson, if a little too percussive at times, yet sublimity descends onto the ‘Theme and Variations’ final movement as ever it did, a ticket to transfer to a special place. Having been guided towards 109, we are led gently away by the ‘Sarabande’ from Bach’s E-major French Suite, BWV817. Closely balanced piano on Deutsche Grammophon 948 6741.
- Beethoven: Piano Sonata in E, Op.109 & Piano Sonata in E minor, Op.90
- J. S. Bach: Partita in E minor, BWV830
- J. S. Bach: The Well-Tempered Clavier I: Prelude in E, BWV854
- Schubert: Piano Sonata in E minor, D566