Víkingur Ólafsson releases highly anticipated fourth album 'Mozart & Contemporaries'

Víkingur Ólafsson turns his hand to Mozart for his anticipated fourth album for Deutsche Grammophon, released today (3 September). Mozart & Contemporaries brings together nine pieces by Mozart with works by Cimarosa, Galuppi, C.P.E. Bach and Haydn, in a typically skilful and thought-provoking programme by Ólafsson – one that captures a moment of musical change and experimentation in the late eighteenth century.

As Ólafsson notes, “This is the period when Mozart was not just perfecting the Classical tradition but subtly subverting it. It is my hope that this particular context, a mix of the celebrated and the obscure, can slightly alter our psychological attunement, removing some of the baggage we all bring with us to Mozart’s music.”

Released alongside the album is a video created by French motion designer and illustrator Karim Dabbèche for its opening track: the Andante spiritoso from Galuppi’s Piano Sonata No.9.

Mozart & Contemporaries offers an alternative to romantic views of Mozart as a divinely inspired genius. The album also features Ólafsson’s own spellbinding transcriptions of Mozart’s Adagio in E flat from the String Quintet K.516 and of Liszt’s Ave verum corpus.

Víkingur Ólafsson’s new album follows his recent remarkable debut at the BBC Proms, for which he performed piano concertos by Mozart and J.S. Bach. Click HERE to watch his Mozart encore.