En4 — KEYBOARD: Vikingur Ólafsson's "Mozart & Contemporaries"
INTERVIEW | “You have to fight for your freedom in music, whether it’s on the performance front or on the recording front.”
WORDS BY ARLAN VRIENS
ILLUSTRATION BY KALYA RAMU
INTERVIEW BY MICHAEL ZARATHUS-COOK
Icelandic pianist Vikingur Ólafsson has won praise across the globe as a prominent advocate for contemporary music and a creative, sensitive interpreter of more traditional fare. Now a Deutsche Grammophon exclusive recording artist, his album Mozart & Contemporaries explores the dynamic social and artistic milieu of the 1780s, juxtaposing late Mozart works with lesser-known composers like Baldassare Galuppi and Domenico Cimarosa. Ólafsson spoke to Cannopy Magazine to share his strategy for curating albums and his interest in today’s composers.
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VIENNA OF THE 80s
CAN | How would you describe the cultural atmosphere that animated Vienna of the 1780s?
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