Raymond O'Donnell (organ)

Prelude In G Minor BuxWV149 -Buxtehude

Prelude In G Minor BuxWV149 -Buxtehude

A Fancy - Byrd

Prelude, Scherzo And Passacaglia Op 41 -Leighton

Livre D'Orgue (exc) - Du Mage

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Toccata, Fugue And Hymn On Ave Maris Stella - Peeters

The principal work in Sunday's organ recital by the organist of Galway Cathedral was the Prelude, Scherzo and Passacaglia by the British composer Kenneth Leighton (1929-88).

Leighton's organ music has an effectiveness of gesture akin to that of the Czech composer Petr Eben, but without the latter's flair and imaginative spark. O'Donnell is certainly up to the considerable technical demands of the Prelude, Scherzo and Passacaglia, Leighton's first organ work, which dates from 1963.

He delivered the first two sections with elan; the lack of cumulative build-up in the passacaglia was as much to do with the composer as the performer.

In the earlier music by Buxtehude, Byrd and du Mage, O'Donnell was fluent but expressively limited. Without the requisite clarity of articulation - in finger work, ornamentation and phrasing - things tended to grey out. The broad impression was right, but the performances were unyielding of far too many key details.

The closing item was the Toccata, Fugue And Hymn On Ave Maris Stella by Flor Peeters, one of the last century's great organists and a pedagogical ancestor of O'Donnell, who studied with Peeters's pupil Gerard Gillen.

Here O'Donnell's playing seemed far better matched to the music, with busyness of finger and brightness of sound delivering the required flamboyance.

Michael Dervan

Michael Dervan

Michael Dervan is a music critic and Irish Times contributor