Pianist Víkingur Ólafsson approaches music without preconceptions; as he puts it, “Every note we play anywhere, anytime, is a reinterpretation, a transcription.”

In this second episode, Víkingur finds huge pieces reduced to small forces and vice versa as he explores the maximal and the minimal in arrangements. A grand baroque masterpiece is transformed into something very different by a jazz quartet, while a piano score is given the rock ’n roll treatment. There’ll also be symphonic grandeur by Gustav Mahler transcribed for the organ, plus piano music by Schubert that Víkingur actually prefers in the orchestral transcription made by the violinist Joseph Joachim.

A Tandem Production for BBC Radio 3 Show less