Peter Sweeney is unique among Irish organists. He is a modern equivalent of the 19th century concert organist - a mix of musician, heroic virtuoso and entertainer.
In the tradition of great players like W.T. Best and Alexandre Guilmant, Peter Sweeney's National Concert Hall Millennium Recital last Thursday night included transcriptions of orchestral music, original compositions in the symphonic organ style, and music written for the Baroque organ.
There was also the premiere of a new work commissioned for this recital.
Ian Wilson's History is Vanity is, in the composer's words, an organic piece. It develops and reworks ideas clearly, though in ways which are sometimes inclined to the extreme, generalised effects which are all too common in contemporary organ music.
Nevertheless, it came across with an integrity that made me want to hear it again. Far from being daunted by this music's enormous technical challenges, Sweeney relished them.
That brings us to the heart of this recital. Like others in the small number of concert organists worldwide, Sweeney has something of the showman about him. In one of his spoken introductions he quipped, "I love vulgarity". Yet behind his penchant for excess, there is real musicianship.
In Scarlatti's Sonatas K255 and 288, and Bach's Fantasia and Fugue in G minor BWV542, impetuosity and technical display were paramount, at the expense of many things more interesting, yet less obvious.
But in a straight, neatly shaped account of Bach's Concerto in G BWV592, Sweeney showed that he can be quite different when he chooses to be.
The most well-rounded performances were of music produced by 19th century virtuosi. Sweeney's playing of Liszt's arrangement of the Agnus Dei from Verdi's Requiem, and of the original version of Widor's Symphony No 2, showed that this tradition included quiet transcendence, as well as heroic display.