Join Sex 14’s on Wednesday, April 22nd at 10am when he speaks with Icelandic pianist, Víkingur Ólafsson, ahead of his Cal Performances recital at Zellerbach Hall in Berkeley on April 29th.
Víkingur Ólafsson is one of the most celebrated classical artists of our time; a unique and visionary musician who brings his profound originality to some of the greatest works in music history. His recordings resonate deeply with audiences around the world, reaching over one billion streams and winning numerous awards including the 2025 GRAMMY for Best Classical Instrumental Solo for his album of Bach’s Goldberg Variations, BBC Music Magazine Album of the Year, and Opus Klassik Solo Recording of the Year (twice).
For his Berkeley performance, Ólafsson has designed a program exploring the first of Beethoven’s great final piano sonata trilogy, Op. 109, in depth. He presents this masterpiece in the context of the composer’s formal breakthrough in his earlier Op. 90 sonata and of Beethoven’s ongoing fascination with the legacy of J.S. Bach. Beethoven’s profound influence on his younger contemporary Schubert is still another thread of the program: the rarely performed Sonata in E minor, which Schubert wrote when he was only 20, shows his awareness of Beethoven’s innovative two-movement Op. 90.
Ólafsson describes the recital as “a road to Opus 109.… Some of [the music] is very Classical. Much of it is progressive and Romantic, but the roots all lie in the Baroque period with Bach.”
