Variations on Victimae Paschali..............Jiri Ropek Allein Gott in der H÷h sei Ehr BWV664..........Bach Sporaepheum...........................................Paul Flynn Sonatina in A minor.................................Karg-Elert Tanz-Toccata.................................................Heiller Allein Gott in der H÷h sei Ehr BWV662..........Bach FΩte.............................................................Langlais

David Leigh's mixed programme, at St. Michael's Church D·n Laoghaire last Sunday night, looked promising. A severely neo-classical organ of the kind in St Michael's tends to be at its best in music from the Baroque period, or with music with a neo-classical type of textural clarity.

The programme seemed designed with that knowledge. But its overall effect proved so flawed that it hindered the appreciation of individual works and of Leigh's accomplished playing. The concert opened with Jiri Ropek's Variations on Victimae Paschali, a demanding piece of contrapuntal panache, and ended with the dazzling technical display of Langlais's FΩte. Karg-Elert's Sonatina in A minor was the centre-piece and the longest work on the programme, surrounded by a arrangement of 18th-century and modern music.

This sonatina was the problem, for technique tediously dominates invention, and it is too long for its material. In those surroundings, Paul Flynn's recent composition Sporaepheum felt overwhelmed. It was hard to know what to make of Anton Heiller's Tanz-Toccata, which does not quite manage the generic conflation of its title.

Despite the problematic programme, this recital was impressive in the versatility and unfailing musicality of the playing. Shaping always felt natural, technique was reliable, and textures were crystal-clear, even in the fast-moving, repeated-chords of Langlais's FΩte.