It so happened that I set about reviewing this DVD during the first week of the Paralympics. The sight of athletes with all manner of disabilities achieving feats that the rest of us can only marvel at was as thrilling as it was uplifting. I felt the same watching this recital. Nobuyuki Tsujii was the joint winner of the 2009 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. ‘Nobu’ has been blind from birth but, like the Paralympic athletes, an apparent drawback has not affected his ability in his chosen field. In fact, his blindness should not – and does not – come into the equation: he is simply a stunningly gifted pianist. Still, one cannot withhold a sense of wonder while watching him play. How on earth, you ask, does he do it?

Peter Rosen deftly sets the scene as the audience take their seats for Tsujii’s Carnegie Hall debut, the pianist waiting anxiously in the wings before being led onstage. His trousers are slightly too short as he bows. He looks achingly vulnerable. Then – astonishment as he opens with John Musto’s Improvisation and Fugue, a test piece specially composed for the Van Cliburn Competition and now something of a Tsujii signature piece. It’s a tremendously effective concert work with its motoric rhythms and Kapustin-like figurations.

I liked his firmly projected Tempest Sonata with its comparatively brisk Adagio (but no lack of dynamic shading), and his masterly handling of Liszt’s ‘Un sospiro’ and Rigoletto Paraphrase with its treacherous right-hand leaps. After the interval he gives us Mussorgsky’s Pictures more accurately and lucidly than most of his peers, though the performance has more than a hint of reproduction rather than true spontaneity. No matter. The encores, slightly disappointing, include two of Tsujii’s own jejune compositions. But don’t stop watching after the final one. Something happens that will have you reaching for the tissues. I won’t spoil it. You’ll have to experience this extraordinary recital yourself.