Johannes Ebenbauer (organ)

Johannes Ebenbauer, who gave the penultimate recital in this year's organ series at St Michael's, Dun Laoghaire, is Kapellmeister at St Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna. In 1988, in his mid-twenties, he was a prizewinner at an international improvisation competition in Linz. And his chronologically-planned Dun Laoghaire programme of Buxtehude, Kerll, Clerambault,

Bach and Heiller ended with an improvisation on submitted themes. Ebenbauer's style is technically free. He didn't seem at all discomfited by the demands the music made on him, but in terms of absolute precision of articulation and rhythmic grip, he didn't keep things on as tight a rein as he might.

Buxtehude's Prelude, Fugue and Chaconne, BuxWV137, showed a tendency to point up too many internal cadences, a practice that may stem from dealing with a swimmier acoustic than St Michael's actually presents. It's not an uncommon practice among organists, but it's one which does make for a somewhat bitty presentation of larger musical paragraphs.

The lightness of Kerll's Capriccio sopra il Cucu came off better than the altogether different lightness of Clerambault's Suite du deuxieme ton. Bach's Schmucke dich, BWV654, lacked an essential gravitas and the same composer's Toccata, Adagio and Fugue in C, BWV564, predictably partook of the same general performing style as the opening Buxtehude.

The Tanz-Toccata by Anton Heiller, now nearly 30 years old, has its character accurately reflected in its title - busy movement, enlivened by rhythmic irregularity. It was here, and in the toccata-like sections of the closing improvisation, that Ebenbauer seemed most fully at home.