Vikingur Ólafsson by Schumann, From (2024/2024), Conductor Marios Papadopoulos, The Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford, United Kingdom

In a standout highlight of this year’s Festival, the beloved Icelandic pianist and born communicator Víkingur Ólafsson joins Marios Papadopoulos and the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra for the piano concerto by Robert Schumann – a supple and musical love letter to his pianist wife, Clara. After Schumann’s concerto comes the composer’s most uplifting symphony – the defiant, joyous and spirited Symphony No. 2 that shares its key, its power and its rigour with the ‘Great’ symphony by Schubert that helped inspire it.