Paul McKeever (organ)

Praeludium in D, BuxWV139 - Buxtehude

Four preludes on Christ lag in Todesbanden - Homilius

Magnificat primi toni in D minor - Buxtehude

Trio in D minor, BWV583 - Bach

Passacaglia in C minor, BWV582

On most occasions when I have heard organist Paul McKeever, he has played 19th and 20th-century music, especially French. On Sunday night, at St Michael's Church, Dun Laoghaire, he played Baroque music by Germanic composers.

McKeever, who is organist and director of music at Adam and Eve's Church, Merchant's Quay, can show a certain amount of flair in Romantic music - the music for which the newly-rebuilt organ in Adam and Eve's is particularly suited. Moreover, when I have heard him in that repertoire he has shown comparatively few of the problems - technical, and especially interpretative - which were all too evident in this Baroque recital.

One can sometimes live with splashy or uncertain technique if there is interpretative insight. However, on this occasion that was wanting. Buxtehude's Praeludium in D, BuxWV 139, and Magnificat primi toni in D minor, need to sound improvisatory, yet whole and purposeful. There was a serious attempt to contrast their many sections and to shape things flexibly. But relative tempos and timing between sections were persistently misjudged, while technical struggles often broke rhythmic flow.

At least two of the four preludes on Christ lag in Todesbanden by Georg Homilius were better, bound together as they were by the cantus firmus. But in the even more connected structures of Bach's Trio in D minor and Passacaglia in C minor, BWV 583 and 582, there was little drive towards closes.

The Passacaglia was especially problematic. It had none of the sweep within and across variations which would have been essential to make the slow speed work. This superlative piece typified the recital: it had moments which could have been effective if only they had been given a context.