Najihakim: Sakskø-Bing Praeludier; Chamber Concertos 1&2;organ Concerto No4

Naji Hakim (organ), Danish Chamber PlayersSignum Classics SIGCD296 ***

Beirut-born French organist Naji Hakim, Messiaen’s successor at La Trinité in Paris, is also, like Messiaen, a composer, though of an entirely different cut. The four works here are a visit to a world you thought had disappeared. The Sakskøbing Preludier, based on a selection of Danish “hymns for our time,” are a kind of light music that would have been downmarket from Poulenc in the 1950s.

The chamber concertos are in the same general vein, with some Eastern colouring in the first. But there's a vim in the Fourth Organ Concerto that's lacking elsewhere, and an offbeat fairground brio in its finale. The performances are marred by some off-colour string intonation. url.ie/gb48