Víkingur Ólafsson Premieres Edmund Finnis by Finnis, Glass, Ó (2022/2022), South Bank Centre, London, United Kingdom

Víkingur Ólafsson unveils a brand new work by Edmund Finnis and his own unparalleled take on Philip Glass’ Études. Like Chopin’s before him, Philip Glass’ Études for solo piano are penetrating, beautiful works of art masquerading as technical exercises. Glass wrote his Études partly to develop his own piano technique. These musical self-portraits are filled with the composer’s characteristic sweeping arpeggios and joyous syncopations, and imbued with his music’s sense of both weightless calm and industrial energy. Southbank Centre Resident Artist Víkingur Ólafsson is an artist possessed of that rare ability to illuminate familiar works with unexpected vision. He sealed his international reputation in 2017 with a benchmark recording of a selection of Glass’ Études, many of which he returns to here. Ólafsson opens his concert with the world premiere of the Southbank Centre commission, Mirror Images by Edmund Finnis, a composer ‘who seems to make the very air shimmer with his music’ (The Times).