Reviews

Vocalists Gary Williams and Allan Harris conjured up benign ghosts during a performance of the musical arrangments of Nelson Riddle at the NCH, writes Gerry Colgan. Organist Henrich Christensen, saved his best for last at his Irish debut, writes Michael Dungan.

Songs for Swingin' Lovers. National Concert Hall, Dublin

Frank Sinatra used to call his early recording years (under the baton of Axel Stordahl) the Old Testament, by way of contrast with the later collaborations with Nelson Riddle, naturally dubbed the New. The two came together in the mid-1950s, when Sinatra was trying to climb out of a mid-career slump. Together they were a revelation and the eponymous album is recognised as one of popular music's brightest gems.

At the weekend, the RTÉ Concert Orchestra, conducted by David O'Rourke, gave two performances of a concert dedicated to the musical arrangements of Riddle, mostly featuring his work with Sinatra, and including some of the hits he created with Nat King Cole. Two exceptional vocalists, Gary Williams (UK) and Allan Harris (New York), added lyrics, but not in imitations of the dear departed. They did better; nestling into the Riddle sound, they conjured up benign ghosts.

The first half included well-known favourites such as Please Be Kind, Lonesome Road and a couple of near-forgotten songs in Gabrielle and French Foreign Legion from the Sinatra oeuvre. Nat King Cole got a good innings with Mona Lisa, Unforgettable and Straighten Up And Fly Right, ranging from the lush to the bouncily effervescent.

After the interval, a feast of standards was offered, including Don't Worry 'Bout Me, Learnin' The Blues, I've Got You Under My Skin and One For My Baby. The vocalists interpreted their songs with brilliance, among them I Get Along Without You Very Well, I Thought About You and My Heart Stood Still. There were also pyrotechnical solos from trombone, guitar and clarinet. This was an unforgettable journey down Memory Lane. - Gerry Colgan

Heinrich Christensen, St Michael's, Dún Laoghaire

Buxtehude - Praeludium in F sharp minor BuxWV146.

Anon - Four dances from the Linzer Orgeltabulatur.

Rinck - Flöten-Concert. Madsen - Praetorius Variations

Danish organist Heinrich Christensen was making his Irish debut. Based in Boston, Christensen opened his programme with Buxtehude's Praeludium in F sharp minor, possibly the first organ piece ever composed in that key. Despite the stylistic contrasts that delineate each section, he chose to exaggerate these divisions with relatively long breaks in a performance that featured a slight slackening of energy in the busy pedal passage but a nimble crispness in both fugues.

Christensen next conjured up minstrels and early wind instruments with four samples from the 108 anonymous dances published in the Linzer Orgeltabulatur in 1613. He matched lively, much-decorated melodies over drones and simple bass lines with registrations that colourfully evoked or mimicked pipes, shawms and, most notably, the sopranino recorder. Curiously, he included the deadeningly didactic Flöten-Concert by Johann Christian Heinrich Rinck (1770-1846), ably displaying the organ's flute stops but also revealing a second-rate exercise in classical style.

Christensen saved his best for last with a flamboyant performance of the six Praetorius Variations by the late Jesper Madsen. The variations "jump around", as he said, between eras and styles, here pursuing a loopy chromaticism, here all counterpoint in a kind of bi-tonal Bach, or here with sinuously interweaving melodies over a long, single pedal point. It ended with brassy chords giving way to a rapid toccata beneath which old Praetorius pounded out his tune on the pedals. - Michael Dungan