Following three discs presenting more-or-less unequivocal Bach, Kevin Bowyer has turned his attention to more contentious ground. I suspect this is going to be one of the real strengths of this monumental series, and not only because most 'serious' organists choose to ignore such 'peripheral' works. Bowyer is ideally suited to presenting confident, authoritative performances of questionable music; not for nothing did he cut his recording teeth on such obscure repertoire as Alkan and Sorabji. While critical opinion and academic argument may deter others, Bowyer is content to let the music speak for itself, whether it is ''by J. S. Bach, J. L. Krebs or A. N. Other'' (a witticism which mercifully the French and German translators of Wilfrid Mellers's otherwise incomprehensible booklet-notes have ignored). On this disc, at least, the music speaks with absolute conviction.
I like very much the gloriously dramatic rhetoric Bowyer brings to the two Toccatas (BWV915 and 916). Harpsichordists may claim these as their own but who could deny this lovely Odense organ the opportunity to glitter with such flamboyant music? I like even more the eight 'short' Preludes and Fugues. These performances have a muscular, clean-shaven feel to them underlined by plain and simple registrations: compare this with Keith John, who seems to look on these pieces as vehicles to display as many weird sounds in as short a space of time as possible. Most of all I like Bowyer's bubbly, invigorating account of the complex C minor Fugue. While other recordings of such indefinable pieces seem like scraps from the cutting-room floor, Bowyer sets them firmly in the mainstream of high baroque organ music.'