{TABLE} Sonata No 2 ......................................... Ritter Erbarm' dich mein, O Herre Gott BWV721 ............... Bach Praeludium in E minor ............................... Bruhns Herr Gott, nun schleuss' den Himmel auf BWV617 ....... Bach Prelude and Fugue in A minor BWV543 ................. Bach Mira III ............................................. Jeff Beer L'Offrande et Alleluia final ......................... Messiaen {/TABLE} THE German organist Margareta Hurholz opened the annual series at St Michael's, Dun Laoghaire, on Sunday night in commanding style.
She handled the opening sonata by the little known August Gottfried Ritter (1811-1885) with a flexible firmness which seemed to get the best out of this carefully crafted piece. She delivered the chromatic E minor prelude by Bruhns with sharp outlines and a sense of tightly argued rhetoric which were riveting.
The three pieces by Bach were also strongly characterised, the first of the chorale preludes, Erbarm dich mein, O Herre Gott, BWV721 through the strange insistent tread of its repeated chords, the second, Herr Gott, nun schleuss den Himmel auf BWV617, through the graceful, fluidity of the lower parts which support its unusual two part cantus firmus.
The Prelude and Fugue in A minor, BWV543, was captured with a sense of real magnificence, born of just tempi, solid rhythmic trajectory and splendidly clean articulation. These performing qualities were well exploited, also, in Mira III by Jeff Beer (born 1952), an exercise in restricted and rather too anodyne minimalism.
The programme concluded with "L'Offrande et Alleluia final", the toccata of joy which closes Messiaen's Livre du Saint Sacrement. It brought the recital to amend in a blaze of exuberant affirmation.
