At the onset of his career, Víkingur Ólafsson was rapidly labelled as the “Icelandic Glenn Gould”; he is now hailed worldwide for his Bach interpretations, which are just as expressive and passionate as they are flooded with a luminous Nordic clarity. Although the piano is second nature to him (his mother was a piano teacher), he is also a warm communicator and a skilled orator who loves to transmit his enthusiasm for music to the audience. Víkingur Ólafsson is as dauntless as he is whimsical – a young intellectual who knows exactly what he wants to achieve with his piano playing. His aim is to “orchestrate sonorities” and to display a “great variety of textures”. He will certainly fulfill that objective in his second appearance to date at the Ruhr Piano Festival, where he will perform keyboard repertoire gems ranging from Rameau to Debussy, and especially Mussorgsky’s impressive cycle “Pictures at an Exhibition”.