This debut album from Dónal McCann is one of the most satisfying organ recordings to have nourished my ears for several months. Every aspect of it glistens: from the energy of the allegro movements and the limpid beauties of the adagios to the spatial contrasts of the highly colourful Grant, Degens and Bradbeer instrument of 1969, which, I fancy, has never been better recorded.

Nine concerto transcriptions are presented of Venetian (or Venetian-flavoured) works brought from Utrecht to Weimar in 1713 by Prince Johann Ernst of Saxe-Weimar and eagerly pounced upon by Johann Gottfried Walther (organist of the Stadtkirche) and his cousin JS Bach, who was then a member of the Court Capelle. Bach makes a tidy job of his employer’s Concerto in G (BWV592), adding a modicum of his own embellishing genius with some judicious melodic and harmonic alterations. Ernst’s single-movement Concerto in C (BWV595) is a tightly argued and highly embellished allegro, notable for a delicious harmonic sidestep (at 1'25") that instantly lifts it into a higher realm.

In general Walther’s approach to transcription is workmanlike, practical and true to the original, whereas Bach cannot resist artfully ‘improving’ Vivaldi. One of the best examples of Walther’s lighter touch is in his transcription of Albinoni’s pithy Concerto in B flat; definitely a case of ‘less is more’.

Moments of great beauty abound. For example, the opening Grave of Taglietti’s four-movement Concerto in B flat floats effortlessly high in the vault, and in the disc’s final track (Bach’s BWV594 after Vivaldi) McCann clearly relishes the effervescent possibilities of the extended cadenza. He wisely uses the organ’s plenum sparingly.

The recording is both clear and resonant, and warmly immediate. McCann’s playing is authoritative as well as attractive and a wonderful showcase for his talents.