Rising superstar Víkingur Ólafsson is a hot commodity these days.
With upcoming recitals at the Royal Festival Hall (London), Philharmonie de Paris, and Carnegie Hall – and that’s just in the first three months of 2026 – Ólafsson’s busy schedule has been a boon to classical markets across the world, drawing in audiences excited to see the man dubbed the “new superstar of classical piano”.
The recently-anointed Grammy Winner (2025, “Best Classical Instrumental Solo”, for his recording of the Goldberg Variations) has a strong association with Toronto’s Koerner Hall, having already performed here five previous times since his “post-COVID” debut in 2022. Happily enough, his program was more or less the exact album he recently won the Grammy for: the Opus No. 109 release, gathering together Beethoven’s fabled Piano Sonata No. 30 in E major, Op. 109 alongside a host of related works by Beethoven and other composers.
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While there’s no denying the power of the works on display – and Ólafsson’s interpretation thereof – we were a bit bewildered by his decision to perform the entire program uninterrupted.
It’s one thing to request that audiences refrain from applause between pieces; that much we can understand. But performing a succession of pieces, back to back, with barely a pause between each, turned the whole performance into a sort of mega-sonata, one composed jointly by Beethoven, Bach, and Schubert. At times, it was difficult even to tell where one piece began and the other ended, so swiftly did Ólafsson move from one to the next.
As for the individual performances themselves – to the extent we could even distinguish them – highlights included Bach’s Prelude No. 9 in E Major, BWV 854, Schubert’s Piano Sonata in E Minor, D. 566, and the aforementioned Beethoven masterpiece of Opus 109. Rounding out the program was Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 27 in E Minor, op. 90, Bach’s Partita No. 6 in E Minor, BWV 830, and a wealth of encores, including some lovely Rameau.
Ólafsson is, of course, rightly heralded for his interpretative skill, nearly unmatched amongst his class of pianists. While we’re ever-so-slightly more partial to Yuja Wang (who, incidentally, Ólafsson collaborated with barely a year ago in a highly acclaimed Carnegie Hall recital), there’s no denying his sheer musicality, light touch on the keys, and impeccable instincts. His ability to conjure raw emotion from the mix (or shall we say, medley) of Bach, Beethoven, and Schubert was impressive, and earned a well-deserved standing ovation (and all those encores).
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Next up on the RCM Season Calendar is a hotly anticipated visit from the Budapest Festival Orchestra under the baton of Iván Fischer. Stay tuned for our thoughts on that concert soon.
Check out the RCM’s 2026 Season Calendar here.
