Mark Duley (organ)

Mariales.............................................. Naji Hakim glauben all' an einen Gott, BWV765, 740, 680.....

Mariales.............................................. Naji Hakim glauben all' an einen Gott, BWV765, 740, 680...... BachBWV572................................. Bach 24.............................................. Van Noordt Fugue..................................... Ned at St Michael's Church, Dun Laoghaire, was notable for a good programme and engaging - playing. Duley treated each piece in a way which was distinctive yet apt for its period and place, and this in styles which encompassed the Dutch and German Baroque as well as contemporary music from France and America.

It was a pleasure to hear such lucid textures in Bach's three settings of Wir glauben all' an einen Gott, BWV765, 740 and 680, and in his Piece d'orgue, BWV572. In the central section of the latter the main entries were impeccably highlighted without breaking a massive momentum. The highly- coloured registration in the Bach was typical of Duley's imaginative approach to each piece in the recital. He thus made the most of lesser- quality Baroque works, especially in a precisely-focused performance of the three-verse setting of Psalm 24 by Anthoni van Noordt, the 17th-century Dutch composer.

The same could be said for the 20th-century pieces. The five Mariales, by the Lebanese-born, Paris-based organist, Naji Hakim, are short character pieces in a modern, post-Alain style, and are based on Marian plainchants. They came across vividly. So did the Fanfare and Fugue from Organbook III by the American Ned Rorem who, now in his seventies, has long been famous for his notoriously-stylised lifestyle. This music showed that he can compose, too.