{TABLE} Tiento del primer tono ............................ Cabezon Diferecias sobre el canto del La Same le Demanda .. Cabezon Diferencias sobre el canto Llano del Caballero .... Cabezon Pascalles ......................................... Cabanilles Recit de tierce en taille ......................... Grigny Dialogue .......................................... Grigny Perlude in E flat BWV552 .......................... Bach Allein Gott in der Hoh sei Ehr BWV676 ............. Bach Aus tiefer Not schrei' ich zu dir BWV686 .......... Bach Jesus Christus, unser Heiland BWV688 .............. Bach Fugue in E flat BWV552 ............................ Bach {/TABLE} KILKENNY based Malcolm Proud is best known as a harpsichordist but in recent years he has begun to surface again at the organ keyboard. In the comparatively rarefied context of the organ recital his appearances are among the hidden treasures of Irish musical life.
His programme at St Michael's, Dun Laoghaire, on Sunday night gave a good indication of his musical proclivities. He juxtaposed some of the best of Bach with earlier repertoire, which was as carefully screened for quality as for its novelty value.
In Sunday's case, the opening works were by two of Spain's leading composers, Antonio de Cabezon and Juan Cabanilles. Both are men whose work is sadly under represented in organ recitals here, and Proud's sinewy handling of four of their pieces showed a fine appreciation of the use of dissonance which enlivens their work.
In the two movements from the Livre d'Orgue by Nicolas de Grigny, Proud shows a fine rhetorical grasp of the typically French richness of embellishment, particularly in the way the leaning dissonances must be used to save the music from potential blandness.
Oddly enough, the high points of the excerpts from Bach's Clavierubung III were not, as might have been expected, the framing Prelude and Fugue, but rather the agonisingly deliberate unfolding of the uniquely rich, six part texture of Aus tiefer Not schrei' ich zu dir and the irrepressible buoyancy of spirit which informed Jests Christus, unser Heiland.
