Sonata on the First Tone - Lidon

Meine Seele erhebt den Herren BWV648 - Bach

Fugue on the Magnificat BWV733 - Bach

Allein Gott in der Hoh sei Ehr' BWV662, 664 - Bach

Prelude and Fugue in E minor BWV548 - Bach

Organbook I - Ned

Rorem Suite modale - Peeters

There was something essentially American about Donald George's organ playing at St Michael's Church Dun Laoghaire on Sunday night. This musician, who has held distinguished posts in New York, seems to follow no ideology of performance practice, and is less interested in finding unity in the music of one period and place than in projecting the individuality he finds in each piece.

Some of his Baroque playing showed an awareness of modern European schools of performance, notably in the snappy phrasing of Lidon's Scarlatti-like Sonata on the First Tone and in the precise articulation of Bach's Meine Seele erhebt den Herren BWV648.

Yet his playing of Bach's Prelude and Fugue in E minor BWV548 showed none of those purist concerns. The Prelude was a sequence of big gestures; and in the Fugue the alternation of precise timing in the imitative sections and reckless dash in the episodes was like a musical roller coaster. It was a misjudgment to use the tinkling Zimbelstern stop at the end of Bach's Allein Gott in der Hoh sei Ehr' BWV664; but in the same melody's BWV662 setting, the delicately flexible, vocal-style shaping of the cantus firmus was enthralling.

Even though the results were uneven, this recital's robust, eclectic approach to performance styles was refreshing, and the wide-ranging programme was well-balanced. The massive scale of the Bach pieces was foiled by the calculated ease and brevity of Ned Rorem's Organbook I, and to finish there was a barnstorming performance of Peeters's Suite modale.