Voluntary in A - Battishill

Toccata in A - Kuhnau

Prelude and Fugue in A BWV536 - Bach

Allein Gott in der Hoh sei Ehr BWV662 - Bach

Prelude and Fugue in A minor BWV543 - Bach

Preludium & Allemanda - Kellner

Trio in C minor - Krebs

Offertoire pour le Jour de Paques - Boely

The Church of the Assumption in Tullamore is home to one of the finest organs in the country. It was made in 1965 for the Evangelical-Lutheran cathedral in Copenhagen, and in an extraordinary gesture of generosity donated to Tullamore when the Danes decided to acquire a larger instrument.

The Dublin International Organ and Choral Festival chose to acknowledge this important national musical asset by putting on a recital there, which, co-incidentally, is the first of a four-part recital series running through to September.

Monday's organ festival recital was given by the Dutch organist Ewald Kooiman, in Ireland as a jury member for the International Organ Competition, which runs in tandem with the festival.

After Wolfgang Zerer in Dun Laoghaire on Sunday, Kooiman's playing was distinctively that of an older generation: rhythmically straighter, plain almost, by comparison with Zerer at his most flexible, and without the younger man's adventurousness of spirit in the matter of fast speeds.

Like Zerer, Kooiman seems to have an unusual key obsession, flouting all conventional wisdom about using contrast of key in programme building, and spending most of his time in the key of A. Is there a new performing trend out there, that we in Ireland haven't been made aware of yet?

Kooiman's Bach was rather dutiful, sometimes even stolid, effective enough in the preludes and fugues, but rather flat in the slow-moving, elaborately-decorated Allein Gott in der Hoh sei Ehr, BWV662. His was a programme in which the lesser pieces communicated with the greatest sense of vitality: the opening pair by Battishill and Kuhnau; the central coupling by Kellner; and most of all, the closing Offertoire by Boely, spirited enough to round off the evening with a warm smile.

The Dublin International Organ and Choral Festival runs until Sunday. For information ring 01-6773066