Sinfonia (Cantata 29) - >Bach/Dupre O Gott du frommer Gott, BWV767 - >

Bach Prelude and Fugue in B minor, BWV544 Bach Sonata in E minor, BWV528 - > Bach Blessed Saviour, Who Hast Taught Me - >Peeters Abide With Me - > Peeters Fugue sur le grand et le petit jeu - > Monnickendam

Aarnaud de Groen's organ recital at St Michael's, Dun Laoghaire, on Sunday night was strong in technique and textural clarity, but was frustrating in lack of rhythmic drive. De Groen is Dutch and in his mid-twenties. He placed finely-calculated articulation first, a contentious tendency in which Dutch players have, over the past 30 years, set an example followed by many others.

This doctrine - that is what it is - is Baroque-driven and does bring benefits, notably in clarity of part writing. But its primacy can inculcate a failure to drive towards closes and this was a problem in many pieces on de Groen's programme. Bach's Partita on O Gott du frommer Gott, BWV767, was dead-pan and unrewarding. In the Sonata in E minor, BWV528, the parts were impeccably clear; but their discourse was just a series of events, with no animating tension.

This approach was especially inappropriate for the antique Romanticism of two preludes by Flor Peeters. The spiky 20th-century style of Fugue sur le grand et le petit jeu by Marius Monnickendam fared better, though the result verged on caricature.

The most persuasive performances were of those pieces whose continuity brooks little interference. Dupre's transcription of the Sinfonia from Bach's Cantata 29 was solid, though not as exciting as it can be. The best playing was in the fugue from Bach's Prelude and Fugue in B minor, BWV544, where clear textures were allied with natural rhythmic drive.