Review: Víkingur Ólafsson plays Beethoven at Philharmonic Hall *****

Most people would agree it’s been quite a week for Vikingur Ólafsson.

First the Icelandic pianist picked up a coveted Grammy for his recording of Bach’s Goldberg Variations, announced at an award ceremony in LA last weekend.

Then a few days later, back on this side of the pond, the apparently massive Magpie got to watch his beloved Newcastle United at St James’s Park.

Oh yes, and to top off a busy eight days he also found time to deliver a spellbinding performance of Beethoven’s ‘Emperor’ Piano Concerto here in Liverpool yesterday.

Superstition has it that bad things come in threes. But good things also come in threes as well it seems, and certainly if this third appearance by Ólafsson at Philharmonic Hall is anything to go by.

The pianist stepped into the breach in January 2023 when illness forced Daniel Barenboim to cancel a much-anticipated appearance alongside his erstwhile protégé Domingo Hindoyan.

Any audience disappointment at Barenboim’s withdrawal was excised by a superlative performance from Ólafsson of Robert Schumann’s Piano Concerto in A. And he returned a few months later to deliver his (now award-winning) reading of Bach’s mighty musical puzzles in recital.

Brahms’ Second Piano Concerto was originally on the programme for this Sunday afternoon stunner, and while some audience members may have regretted it being switched for Beethoven, I suspect many others were either quite happy with the swap or if not, were rapidly won over.

Folded over the keys, the willowy Ólafsson produced a propulsive opening allegro that was marvellously crystalline in its clarity and felt, despite the piece’s popularity and ubiquity in programmes, brilliantly fresh.

There was an evident rapport and responsiveness between soloist and orchestra, under Hindoyan’s baton, and a delightful winding to and fro between piano and Miquel Ramos Salvado’s clarinet.

You could have heard a pin drop as the practically capacity house held its collective breath.

An adagio of tender, lilting exquisiteness (from both piano and orchestra) followed, running into the rondo finale that came with capering accompaniment and – from Ólafsson – the same care and attention to each note and phrase he had lavished on the preceding half-an-hour.

A deceptively unassuming but huge performance which garnered enough love in the room to warrant not one but two encores – both Rameau and including one, The Arts and the Hours, arranged by the pianist himself.

Ahead of the interval, the afternoon concert announced itself with Kodály’s exuberant Dances of Galánta, with Hindoyan – particularly animated on the podium – leading the orchestra through the Hungarian’s collection of toothsome melodies with enjoyable elan; the sinuous, winding phrases from Salvado, the Phil’s new section leader and the latest in a line of fantastic Spanish-born clarinet signings by the orchestra, proved a particular highlight.

The piece was pared with Dvořák’s Scherzo Capriccio, a crowd-pleasing, colourful carousel that span the concert hall into the break with a smile.

Top: Vikingur Ólafsson and the RLPO take a bow. Photo courtesy of Sandra Parr.