Stylus Phantasticus

This is an excellent programme with an organist on top form and a modern instrument ideally suited to the musical content. The 35-stop instrument at Riegel is firmly modelled on North German Baroque lines and this is amply confirmed by the sound it makes. If the handbook hadn't stated otherwise, one would have guessed it to be a newly-restored Arp Schnitger!

The programme starts with a quarter-minute demo of the 'Birdsong' stop. This is barely audible, but there is no mistaking what follows! With varied free-style works by Bruhns, Sweelinck, Bohm and Bach et al, this is one of the best Baroque recitals on disc. Registration ranges from Organo Pleno (Bruhns & Buxtehude) to a solitary 4-foot flute (for Sweelinck's More Palatino), all very appropriate to the music and enjoyable to the ear- a good 78 minutes' worth.

This is a lovely recording (made in 1993), played with delicacy and rigour. The three-manual instrument at St Martin's Riegel, tuned to Werckmeister III, is excellent for this programme of song variations and music with the stylus phantasticus elements of the German Baroque. Particularly noticeable are the high quality flutes. The theatricality and colourful gestures of the stylus phantasticus are kept under control – nothing too flamboyant here – and what is remarkable about the playing is the transparent clarity. Not a note is uncared for, and each line is a delight to hear, even in the midst of rich contrapuntal textures. A gently paced account of Sweelinck's Mein junges Leben hat ein End keeps something of the tender melancholy of this song, which can be lost in brisker versions, while Bach's Toccata, Adagio, and Fugue is vibrant: there is real spring and drive in the second half of the Toccata. The Fugue is more monumental than some versions, though clarity is finely retained in a piece that is not the tidiest of Bach's contrapuntal writing. I have rarely heard echoes in the pedal solo before, but the pedal mixture goes on and off to some effect here. Other music includes a sensitive account of Bach's partita on O Gott, du frommer Gott, Georg Böhm's variations on Jesu, du bist allzu schöne, and Sweelinck's variations on the student song More Palatino. The instrument includes a Vogelgesang stop – birdsong – from which we have a delightful 17 seconds as the mood-setter at the beginning. A disc well worth hearing.

This CD juxtaposes north German stylus phantasticus pieces with variations, on a fine modern 3-manuaI 35-stop organ tuned in Werckmeister III temperament. The Praeludia/toccatas by Bruhns (G major), Buxtehude (BuxWV 155), attrib. Böhm (G minor) and J.S. Bach (BWV 564) are given lively, imaginative performances, with the unequal temperament bringing the diatonic keys and their harmonies vividly alive. The intimate colours of the organ are well demonstrated in Sweelinck (Mein junges Leben and More Palatino), Böhm (Jesu, du bist allzu schöne) and Bach (O Gott, du frommer Gott), although Mein junges Leben lacked creativity and charm.