Icelandic pianist Víkingur Ólafsson is offering a window into his musical life story with his new album, From Afar. Due for release on 7 October on Deutsche Grammophon, the highly personal double album reflects Ólafsson’s musical DNA, from childhood memories growing up in Iceland to his international career and contemporary inspirations.

The album was inspired by Ólafsson’s life-changing meeting with György Kurtág in Budapest in September 2021, which left him with “a feeling of lightness and joy” and sparked memories of music he loved as a child. From Afar (a title inspired by Kurtág’s Aus der Ferne) is both a tribute to his hero and a return to his musical roots. “It is more personal than my previous work,” says Ólafsson. “It connects very deeply to my childhood and it pays homage to one of my favourite composers of all time. Throughout the album, there are intimate conversations and messages from afar – closely knit canons, transcriptions and dedications, as well as distant echoes of nearly forgotten, ancient melodies.”

Recorded on both upright and grand pianos, the album captures two distinct sound worlds with works by Bach, Mozart, Schumann, Brahms and Bartók, alongside Icelandic and Hungarian folk songs, transcriptions by Ólafsson himself, and interconnecting pieces composed by his hero, 96 year-old Hungarian composer and pianist György Kurtág. In a bold move, Ólafsson has recorded the album twice – on grand piano and on felt-covered upright, offering the same music with two different timbres. He captures the intimacy granted by the upright, as well as the full palette possible with the grand piano. Kurtág himself often recorded on felted pianos for variations of dynamics and tone.

Exploring such evocative themes as home, childhood and family, the album features Hungarian and Icelandic folk songs, nature-inspired works, interwoven homages and three previously unreleased transcriptions by Ólafsson. Ólafsson performs with his wife, Halla Oddný Magnúsdottir, in Kurtág’s transcription of Bach’s three-handed arrangement of Trio Sonata No. 1, which the composer used to perform with his late wife, Márta. György Kurtág, in turn, recently dedicated this transcription to Ólafsson.

Photo: Bálint Hrotkó