Víkingur Ólafsson

Where would you like to live?   

Exactly where I live: in Iceland, right in between America and Europe. It’s a very beautiful country to live in and I love the very different seasons, the darkness of the winter and the white nights of the summer. But most importantly, Iceland is the place where my family lives. I find it wonderful to raise my two boys there, three and five years old. It’s a peaceful place, even with all the volcanoes and earthquakes.   

What mistakes are you most willing to forgive?   

The mistakes of others.   

Your favourite novel protagonist?  

It's a guy named Bjartur. He is the protagonist in my favourite novel, «Independent People» written by Halldór Laxness, the only Icelandic winner of the Nobel Prize for literature. Bjartur is a farmer who is incredibly stubborn, fighting both Icelandic nature and Icelandic society. He is certainly not his own best friend. But through this man you see a lot of reflections when it comes to the Icelandic people as a whole – although we are not quite so difficult as Bjartur.     

Your favourite character in history?  

Impossible question to answer. But let’s go with my mother. Even if she doesn’t have historical significance in that sense, she has certainly shaped my own little history and how I perceive the world. Mothers and grandmothers are incredible human beings. If I had to name a second favourite character, it would be Ludwig van Beethoven.   

Your favourite designer/artist?  

This is another question I could answer in 5000 different ways! But OK, let’s go with Alvar Aalto, the Finnish architect. My father is an architect and I regard architecture very much as an art form. Aalto fascinates me endlessly. His organic forms, the perfect relationship between discipline and fantasy in his designs, how his structures seem to elevate human existance and yet remain understated and humble – that inspires me.   

Your favourite character trait?   

Generosity.   

Your favourite flower?   

The harebell. You find it up here in the wilderness in Iceland. I always love to see it.   

What natural gift would you like to have?  

I wish I was a poet. I wish I had the capacity to organize words into something that they cease to be words and become poetry.   

Would you like to have an absolute memory?   

Only for the good things! It would be wonderful to forget some of the others. In this sense I would like to have a selective absolute memory.   

How old would you like to be?   

When I was a kid, I was obsessed with death. I have an older sister, I was seven years old when she turned ten, and I remember thinking: She must be so grateful that she has managed to become ten. Because I was convinced that I would be dead before that. I had dreams about it, I dreamt that I was lying in a hospital and saw my own heart monitor go into a flat line. And I woke up with tears in my eyes. But then I turned ten myself, and 20, and 30, and now 40. I would very much like to become 100, that would be a good number. It depends on health, of course, and general happiness. Look at people like the composer György Kurtág who just turned 98 – if you still create with 98 that is the greatest gift.   

Do you like travelling?   

I do actually, believe it or not! I like the feeling of arriving to a new place. And I love coming back to places that I have been to many times and rediscover them with fresh eyes. I also like people in different cultures. Last season I played the «Goldberg Variations» in Zurich, Tokyo, New York, Reykjavík, Vienna, Paris, Helsinki, everywhere – it was great to feel how people are incredibly different and incredibly similar at the same time.   

What do you do when you are travelling?

When I arrive in a new place I usually go running. It is wonderful to know a new place in your running sneakers. Then I look for a piano so that I can see if everything is working – I'm a bit of a workaholic. And I also start looking for a place where I can find really good food. Besides that, it depends where I am. In Japan I always try to visit houses of the great architect Tadao Ando, I love to be inside his structures. In New York I usually go to one of the incredible museums you find there, in Rome I tend to look for men's fashion shops (and, yes, the Patheon and all the rest of it!). And in Switzerland I just love to breath the very fresh air and be outside in nature. I have yet to find a spot in Switzerland that is not beautiful!   

Let's talk about music. Your key classical work?   

The obvious answer would be the «Goldberg Variations» from Johann Sebastian Bach. But I also could mention his «Well tempered Clavier book I», I revisit that epic work again and again and again and just can't get enough. Of course, there are many other composers who are important for me but Bach is the only one I never take a break from.   

How would you describe your instrument?   

I think of the piano as a meeting place. It’s where I meet the composers (dead or alive!), where I meet my audience … where I meet or don’t meet my expectations! I grew up in a very small basement apartment, sharing a room with my two sisters. The living room was tiny, but in it we had a glorious grand piano, a Steinway model B. My parents had spent all their money to buy it before they even had an apartment. In a way the piano was the apartment, the meeting place where everything happened. The piano is a portal that can take you to incredibly different locations.   

Do you like to practise?  

Yes, very much so. Every day. I never have to force myself to practice. It’s been like that since the beginning – when I was growing up my parents never had to ask me to practice. They would rather say: go out and play football with your friends, do something else, socialize! So playing the piano was never something I did out of duty, it came from passion and joy. That has remained my relationship with the instrument to this day.

How important is applause for you?   

It is important to me, but not because I want people to tell me that I'm wonderful. I really want them to be as moved by the music as I am. If they are happy and applaud, it makes me happy. By the way: It is really interesting how applause is different in different cultures! It would make for an intriguing documentary.  

Do you have a ritual before a concert?   

I am a simple man and always must eat two or three hours before the performance. I am fascinated by people who can play without having blood sugar running but I need energy to play. The other thing I always try to fit into my schedule is to take a nap in the afternoon before a concert, half an hour, not much more, hopefully not much less. I need that to restart myself after the work I've done in the morning – preparing myself and working with the piano technician to prepare the instrument. It's fascinating how this nap-restart can help you in a performance when you want to do something fresh.   

What do you appreciate about conductors or orchestras?   

I love when they are both collective and individual. The best conductors can hold an ensemble of 80 people perfectly together and do at the same time something completely unpredictable. The same with the orchestras: In the best case they are one unit, but inside this unit the musicians still have a very strong identity as individuals. When they can find a way to merge their individual identity into something greater than themselves, into the unity of the whole, that is what really moves me. It becomes a great brotherhood.   

If you were to create a questionnaire, what question would it contain?   

What makes you happy?   

And what would your answer be?  

Three people. My two boys and my wife. Coming back home to them after a tour – the hugs, the intensity, the way my boys cling to me: that is actually the happiest moment in my life.

Interview: Susanne Kübler