Passamezzo Pavan - Philips

Pavan and Galliard - Taylor

Salve Regina - Bull

Prelude and Fantasia in A minor - Byrd

Herr Christ, der einig Gotts Sohn - Scheidemann

Prelude and Fugue in E minor BWV548 - Bach

It's not often you'll find a programme by an Irish organist so heavily tilted in the direction of early English music as Malcolm Proud's was at St Michael's, Dun Laoghaire on Sunday. But, then, it's not often you'll find a player who snaps this music into clear focus the way Proud can, urging it forward with a rhythmic sense that's pressured yet exact, adorning it with embellishments that are often unexpected yet always fitting, and leavening its lines with articulation that's both airy and invigorating. The highlight of Sunday's selection, which took up two-thirds of the programme, was the A minor Prelude and Fantasia by William Byrd, a composer for whom Proud has long shown special affinity.

Scheidemann, one of the founders of the north German organ school, was placed as the key link in this programme, reaching forward to Bach, but also backwards through the Low Countries (and his teacher, Sweelinck) to England. Stylish as was the delivery of the chorale prelude on Herr Christ, der einig Gotts Sohn, it was dwarfed by the closing item, Bach's Prelude and Fugue in E minor, BWV548. This found Proud in his most stately and imposing manner, measured enough in tempo and weighty enough in pulse to suggest a rugged musical massiveness, impeccably clear in layout, and yet passionate enough in conviction to leave one with a quintessential Bachian experience of being stirred to the depths.