Here’s a link to my original post, ‘Healing My Brain Through Music’.
This week I decided to stick with the Goldberg Variations by Johann Sebastian Bach. Specifically the 2023 Deutsche Grammophon recording by Icelandic pianist Víkingur Ólafsson.
The technical prowess of Ólafsson is absolutely stunning on this recording. Several of the variations prompted me to create an entirely new playlist called simply ‘Wow’. Check out Variation 21 for an example of what I mean. His playing is also heart wrenchingly gorgeous on the slower pieces, Variation 20 being just one example. And the ‘Aria’ is simply lovely.
I haven’t checked out a lot of Bach if I’m being honest. This was one of my first deeper dives. I felt like the source code of my brain was being rewritten. It was as though there were numbers and calculations being fed directly into my brain, but in a good way. I look forward to listening to more of his work down the road.