Anyone who has heard the four-manual organ designed for Melbourne’s Scots Church by Austria’s Rieger firm will be aware of its heart-stopping magnificence. The church’s resident organist Douglas Lawrence offers an inspired choice of pieces avoiding the hackneyed at every turn; only Buxtehude’s Prelude and Fugue in G Minor could be called popular. 

The intricate polyphony of Bach’s E minor Trio BWV528 is best conveyed by an organist with three heads; pending that particular anatomical configuration, Lawrence’s performance attains everything that could be desired. A virtuosic prelude by Gabriel Pierné – the former Franck pupil who conducted the premiere of Stravinsky’s The Firebird – makes a beguiling alternative to Widor’s Toccata and fully deserves the attention Lawrence expends on it.

From half a century earlier comes a splendid contribution in B flat major by Alexandre Boëly (1785-1858), one of the very few Frenchmen of his time who cared for Bachian counterpoint. Among Boëly’s predecessors, Michel Corrette (1709-1795) harks back gratifyingly in his own music to the great age of Couperin.  

Where lesser players too often impart a stodginess to German Baroque material, Lawrence demonstrates his keen gift for registrations at once idiomatic and ear-catching. Whilst perhaps the recording quality lacks in-your-face vividness, the Mendelssohn fugue’s concluding bars will give any speakers a good workout. The package includes the performer’s own booklet notes, a comprehensive stop list, and sung versions of the chorale melodies Bach employed.

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