Víkingur Ólafsson to Make his SFP Debut

Icelandic pianist Víkingur Ólafsson (photograph by Ari Magg, courtesy of SFP)

Next month Icelandic pianist Víkingur Ólafsson will make his debut as a San Francisco Performances (SFP) recitalist, concluding the 2022–23 Shenson Piano Series and presenting the penultimate program of the entire SFP season. Approximately a year earlier, he was the concerto soloist for the final subscription program in the 2021–22 season of the San Francisco Symphony (SFS). Music Director Esa-Pekka Salonen led SFS in a performance of the John Adams piano concerto entitled “Must the Devil Have All the Good Tunes?” In that context, the program he has prepared for SFP is decidedly “something completely different.”

If Ólafsson’s SFP recital were to be given a title, it would probably be something like Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in the Company of his Contemporaries. Eight of the selections were composed by Mozart. Two of them are three-movement sonatas: K. 545 in C major and K. 457 in C minor. There will also be a solo piano account of the Adagio movement from the K. 516 string quartet in G minor. The program will conclude with the K. 618 choral motet, “Ave verum corpus,” presented in a transcription composed by Franz Liszt.

Among the other composers on the program, Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach is probably the most significant. He is represented only by a Rondo movement from one of his keyboard sonatas (Wq 61). However, he is also cited in an encomium attributed to Mozart: “[Emanuel] Bach is the father. We are the Children!” The program will also include the opening slow movements from two sonatas by Baldassare Galuppi, a three-movement sonata by Joseph Haydn (Hoboken XVI/32 in B minor), and two single-movement sonatas by Domenico Cimarosa, both arranged by Ólafsson.

This performance will take place in Herbst Theatre beginning at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, May 9. The entire recital will be performed without an intermission. The entrance to Herbst is on the ground floor of the Veterans Building at 401 Van Ness Avenue, located on the southwest corner of McAllister Street. This venue is excellent for public transportation, since that corner has Muni bus stops for both north-south and east-west travel. All tickets are being sold for $80 for premium seating in the Orchestra and the front and center of the Dress Circle, $65 for the Side Boxes, the center rear of the Dress Circle, and the remainder of the Orchestra, and $55 for the remainder of the Dress Circle and the Balcony. They may be purchased through an SFP secure Web page. As available, single tickets will be sold at the door with a 50% discount for students and a 20% discount for seniors. Single tickets may also be purchased by calling 415-392-2545.