Album: Nick Van Bloss, Bach: Goldberg Variations (Nimbus Alliance)

Nick Van Bloss is a young concert pianist with a backstory – in his case, an affliction with Tourette's Syndrome so intense that his compulsion to touch objects repeatedly in strict rhythmic sequence was studied by Dr Oliver Sacks for his book Musicophilia.

That compulsion actually plays to the needs of a concert pianist, where precision is paramount, and Van Bloss employs it here to mesmerising effect, as he slips easily between, say, the measured "Variation 4" into the brilliant cascade of "Variation 5". What makes Bloss's Goldberg Variations even more remarkable is that until a month before the session, he had never played the piece.

DOWNLOAD THIS Aria; Variation 4; Variation 5; Variation 20

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