Work: Étude no. 5

Vikingur Ólafsson, a daring and unique artist, never repeated himself in a performance of Philip Glass' Etudes for piano as part of the Berlin Konzerthaus' "Festival USA".

Sixteen minutes of mercilessly pummelling the piano keys, alternating shimmering, dissonant chords between right and left hands, as fast as humanly possible or maybe slightly faster. This fleet, beguiling whoosh of texture left the Kings Place audience in no doubt as to Bruce Brubaker’s technical prowess, nor his astonishingly delicate, sensitive touch at the keyboard.