Víkingur Ólafsson Live in Salzburg: Bach, Schubert & Beethoven

Bach, Schubert and Beethoven: three composers at the core of the piano repertoire. But, as one would expect with Víkingur Ólafsson, this programme – coming live from Salzburg's Haus für Mozart – is far from conventional, carefully built around works in just two keys: E major and E minor. A brief Bach prelude serves as a curtain raiser for a programme in which two enigmatic late Beethoven Sonatas bookend Bach's Partita No. 6 and two movements from the 20-year-old Schubert's E minor Sonata D. 566. In a characteristically questioning and provocative way, then, the pianist presents these familiar composers afresh, while the works' shared tonality is used as a lens to view both the music and its creators from a new, unexpected angle.