Icelandic Pianist’s Goldberg Variations Surpasses 20 Million Streams

Deutsche Grammophon announced Víkingur Ólafsson’s recording of Bach’s Goldberg Variations has been streamed over 20 million times.

What’s Up: This week, the recording label Deutsche Grammophon announced in a press release that Víkingur Ólafsson’s 2023 recording of Bach’s Goldberg Variations has been streamed over 20 million times. The album was released in October, achieving the Icelandic pianist pop star status as far as classical music streaming numbers are concerned.

Refresher: Víkingur Ólafsson, 39, grew up in Reykjavík before moving to New York City to study at the Juilliard School. He has performed with countless orchestras around the world including the Berlin Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. In 2016, he signed an exclusive contract with Deutsche Grammophon (DG). His albums with DG, including Philip Glass Piano Works (2017), Johann Sebastian Bach (2018), Debussy Rameau (2020), Mozart & Contemporaries (2021) and From Afar (2022), have been streamed over 600 million times.

Digging Deeper: This season, Ólafsson is focusing solely on Bach’s Goldberg Variations, which he will perform 88 times worldwide over the course of the year. Ólafsson describes the piece as “like a life cycle,” in which he revels in the individuality of each of Bach’s variations. This differs from how Glenn Gould played the piece in his 1981 recording, in which Gould sought stylistic cohesiveness within Bach’s 30 variations. Fans of Gould’s may enjoy hearing Ólafsson’s very different take.

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Sara Schabas

Sara Schabas is a soprano and writer born and bred in the heart of Toronto’s musical community. When she’s not singing opera, you can find her covering Carole King on the ukulele, biking through the Annex and advocating the merits of Puccini.