An album released by Deutsche Grammophon on October 6th, 2023 - Goldberg Variations by Johann Sebastian Bach, performed by Icelandic pianist Vikingur Olafsson.

In February 2024, Vikingur Olafsson will be 40 years old, of which 25 have been dedicated to this work by Bach he has been studying since he was a teenager. And which he dared to record only now.

Bach's Goldberg Variations is one of mankind's masterpieces - a complete work by one of the great geniuses of our species that explains the meaning of existence and who we are at heart as humans. A masterpiece that shows its many facets only after a thorough study, involving not only technique and musicality, but also intelligence, knowledge, in other words, the whole life experience of the performer, and I would add, of the one who listens.

Vikingur Olafsson is one of the great pianists of our time. With a sober, minimalist style, he sings with the same eloquence both contemporary music and Bach, and his recording projects really prove it. He debuted at Deutsche Grammophon in 2017 with studies by Philipp Glass, followed by a multi-award-winning Bach album in 2018. Debussy and Rameau in 2020, Mozart and contemporaries in 2021, From afar in 2022 are other successful recent compositions , alongside numerous awards for these albums and concerts with great orchestras all over the world.

In 2023, the Goldberg Variations, in which Vikingur Olafsson puts a little bit of himself: the coldness and precision of the north, a touch of humor, minimalism of execution - but the sense that absolutely everything is exactly where it should be, a lightness and a naturalness of expression that simply leaves you breathless with sparkling wit. It's 75 minutes of music that proves what a British critic also noted: that we have a new great emblematic performer for these Variations, and that's Vikingur Olafsson.