Reviews

Cormuin Ó Raghallaigh (piano) NCH John Field Room , Dublin -Mozart – Sonata in D K311.

Schubert – Impromptus D899.

Cormuin Ó Raghallaigh’s choice of music for this lunchtime recital suggested an appreciation for the high end of the piano repertoire. Neither Mozart’s Sonata in D K311, nor the four Schubert Impromptus, are especially demanding on technique; but to make the most of their deep aspects requires discerning musicianship.

That high aim, combined with inconsistencies in the playing, made this a patchy recital. There is no question that Cormuin Ó Raghallaigh, who works as an organist, a teacher in well-known music centres, and as accompanist to choral societies, can get around the keyboard. And, unlike some patchy recitals I have heard, the conviction embedded in his playing went a long way and kept one listening.

Two features were especially responsible for the inconsistencies. One was a tendency not to have a firm grip on metre. This produced a rather loose kind of rhythm, in which, for example, links between phrases in the Mozart sonata were often rushed.

Time was lost, without the compensation that is the essence of effective rubato. The other feature, related to the first, was an inclination to emphasise detail at the expense of large-scale momentum. This was especially noticeable in some of the Impromptus, which, as their name implies and Ó Raghallaigh’s programme notes declared, are designed almost like improvisations. In all such music, such as the fantasias of Bach and Liszt, conveying a sense of large-scale purpose is even more critical than it is in music of more conventional design.

Nevertheless, the way in which detail was lovingly shaped was engaging; and in that context the odd slip of technique and a lapse of memory in one of the Impromptus were insignificant. The warm response at the end of the recital suggested that this was true for most in the audience. - Martin Adams

Guttorm Guleng (organ)  St Michael’s, Dún Laoghaire

Bach – Concerto in A Minor BWV593. Cabanilles – Tiento 21. Bach – Sonata in E flat BWV525.

du Mage – Tierce en Taille.  Bach – Prelude and Fugue in D minor BWV539. Mendelssohn – Sonata in F minor Op 65 No 1.

Norwegian organist Guttorm Guleng, who was unanimously awarded the top prize at the 2005 Pipeworks International Organ Competition in Dublin, made his first appearance at the organ recital series in St Michael’s, Dún Laoghaire, on Sunday.

His programme was largely baroque and largely German, and it was the works which were both baroque and German, all of them by Bach, which came off best.

The great pleasure of the evening was the rock-solid character of the playing. The solidity wasn’t just a matter of technical reliability.

Guleng is one of those organists who can separate the layers of contrapuntal writing without resorting to extremes of registration or dynamic. He’s got the knack of creating musical dialogue without having to allow a particular line in the dialogue to dominate. The baroque works from Spain and France, a Tiento by Juan Cabanilles and the Tierce en Taille by Pierre du Mage, sounded a bit too firm, even stolid.

And in Mendelssohn’s Sonata in F minor there was a forwardness of sound to the mid-19th-century richness which, rather than bring out the composer’s compositional exuberance, caused the music to seem a little overweight.

In Bach, however, the clarity of projection was spot on. Here Guleng created a sense of unassuming virtuosity that was as apt in the arrangement of a Vivaldi concerto as in the demanding richness of the Sonata in E flat. - Michael Dervan