Opus 109
Beethoven - Bach - Schubert
Víkingur Ólafsson (piano)
Awards:
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Presto Recordings of the Year, Finalist 2025
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Presto Recording of the Week, 21st November 2025
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BBC Music Magazine, February 2026, Recording of the Month
Every phrase, every note of this Op. 109 sounds deeply thought-through...This disc continues the progress of Ólafsson as one of the great individual pianists of our time, imaginative and original...
Opus 109
Beethoven - Bach - Schubert
Víkingur Ólafsson (piano)
Purchase product
Other available formats
Awards:
-
Presto Recordings of the Year, Finalist 2025
-
Presto Recording of the Week, 21st November 2025
-
BBC Music Magazine, February 2026, Recording of the Month
Every phrase, every note of this Op. 109 sounds deeply thought-through...This disc continues the progress of Ólafsson as one of the great individual pianists of our time, imaginative and original...
About
With over one billion streams worldwide, Víkingur Ólafsson is one of the most listened-to classical artists of our time. Following the global success of his Grammy®-winning recording of the Goldberg Variations, the Icelandic pianist now presents his latest album: Opus 109. At its heart is Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 30 in E major, Op. 109, a masterpiece of the composer’s late period, which Víkingur places in an illuminating and musically thrilling temporal dialogue, tracing the lineages that converge on this beloved beacon of the piano literature.
Contents and tracklist
- Víkingur Ólafsson (piano)
- Recorded: 2025-07
- Recording Venue: Norðurljós Hall, Harpa Concert House, Reykjavík
- Víkingur Ólafsson (piano)
- Recorded: 2025-07
- Recording Venue: Norðurljós Hall, Harpa Concert House, Reykjavík
- Víkingur Ólafsson (piano)
- Recorded: 2025-07
- Recording Venue: Norðurljós Hall, Harpa Concert House, Reykjavík
- Víkingur Ólafsson (piano)
- Recorded: 2025-07
- Recording Venue: Norðurljós Hall, Harpa Concert House, Reykjavík
- Víkingur Ólafsson (piano)
- Recorded: 2025-07
- Recording Venue: Norðurljós Hall, Harpa Concert House, Reykjavík
- Víkingur Ólafsson (piano)
- Recorded: 2025-07
- Recording Venue: Norðurljós Hall, Harpa Concert House, Reykjavík
Spotlight on this release
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Víkingur Ólafsson shares a new perspective on Op. 109
21st Nov 2025
Víkingur Ólafsson’s new album is built around Beethoven’s Op. 109 piano sonata, with the much-loved Icelandic pianist bringing fresh perspective to a cornerstone of the repertoire, elucidating connections with the music of Bach and Schubert, and reinforcing the fact that the composer was more than the romanticised revolutionary of popular legend.
Awards and reviews
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Presto Recordings of the YearFinalist 2025
-
Presto Recording of the Week21st November 2025
-
BBC Music MagazineFebruary 2026Recording of the Month
February 2026
Every phrase, every note of this Op. 109 sounds deeply thought-through...This disc continues the progress of Ólafsson as one of the great individual pianists of our time, imaginative and original in programming, thoughtful and deeply considered in performance.
1st December 2025
The album radically recontextualises Op 109 to dazzling, mind-expanding effect. Suddenly you’re hearing music history, a lineage, rather than a snapshot, the effect of which is not dissimilar to unexpectedly learning the etymology of a familiar word: the meaning doesn’t change, yet the revelation somehow makes it feel more true.
December 2025
Somehow Ólafsson's dry-point Bach style feels more authentic and convincing in the Schubert movements, as well as the beautifully paced Beethoven Op 109 first movement.
21st November 2025
The playing across the Bach, Beethoven and Schubert pieces presented here offers the subtlety and crystalline sound that is a hallmark of Ólafsson's recordings. What Ólafsson doesn’t do at any point is wallow in the hints of Romanticism, and there is an etched, architectural quality to his playing which, married to beautifully controlled dynamics and elegant phrasing, reminds us that Beethoven didn’t suddenly turn musical history on its head by rejecting all that came before.
20th November 2025
The seamless slide into the long-awaited Op 109 is breathtaking. Not only does Ólafsson offer exceptional variety in his articulation here, it’s also one of the most purely beautiful accounts on record. Traditionalists may wince, but for those prepared to go along with him, Ólafsson opens up a transcendent vista on to a brave new world.
