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Every pianist at some point feels the pull to take on the challenge of Bach. The results usually fall into two camps: very precise or very expressive. This division comes from a particularly spectacular moment in classical music history when Glenn Gould recorded a very personal and expressive version of Bach's Goldberg Variations in 1955 - and then he seemed to reverse course with a later recording where he purposely stripped away nearly all of the excessive/expressive color of his first recording. Both recordings are considered masterpieces. So if you're a pianist coming after Gould's double-win at interpretation, what do you do?
Víkingur Ólafsson's answers with an approach to Bach that is cinematic, atmospheric, emotional, very well-played, and yet somehow he keeps his approach in such a tight, contemporary, and personal vocabulary of expressiveness that is never reads as a weaker poet's self-indulgence-nay it is spectacular. His version plays as a revelation of Bach's mastery rendered through the lens that is contemporary experience-mediated, cinematic, personal, and profound.
Best Bach on Piano since 1955 G. Gould
Víkingur Ólafsson