Susan Landale, St Albans Cathedral, St Albans

Splendour in the cathedral

Susan Landale won the very first St Albans Organ Competition in 1963, the year before Gillian Weir. Born and educated in Scotland, Landale has lived for many years in France – she is the organist of Saint-Louisdes-Invalides in Paris – and it was heartening to hear her in such good form at St Albans Cathedral on Saturday.

Her recital programme was a popular one – popular, that is, as far as the organ public is concerned – and mainly of French repertoire. She began, though, with Bach's massive "St Anne" Prelude and Fugue, pacing it with a certain nonchalance and giving a consistently weighty sound, without any fussy changes of registration.

Since we were, liturgically, still within the Christmas period, she continued with two "Noëls" by the French Baroque composer Louis-Claude Da-quin, the first contrasting two cornet stops in a subtle blend of melancholy and ornate formality, the second his well-known "Noël étranger" on bold reed stops, skipping along like a knight on a colourfully bedizened charger, even if, on this instrument, slightly heavily.

So far, despite Landale's very poised and friendly spoken introduction, she seemed to be settling down, for here and there were small chips off the edges of her articulation. With Franck's Third Choral she came into her own.

This fiery, passionate piece easily falls apart, but Landale achieved a good sense of continuity and built up the cliffhanger climax before the final toccata section quite splendidly. It was as compelling a performance as I have heard.

Then, on a lighter level, came Lëon Boëllmann's "Suite Gothique" – "gothique" indicating, in this case, a vaguely antique style, if only in its heavy-footed "Menuet". The third movement, "Prière a Nôtre-Dame", could be called amiable kitsch, and the final Toccata is justifiably the best-known movement – a clever piece designed to wow the Parisian bourgeoisie with its important-sounding pedal theme beneath mysteriously flickering patterns on the manuals. The "Adagio" and "Final" from Vierne's Third Symphony highlighted flutes before exploring an impressive range of dynamic contrasts, partly through the use of the Swell pedal and partly through changes of manual.

While the "Adagio" is idle stuff, little better than an organist's thumb-twiddling, the "Final" certainly shows what a big romantic instrument can do, and Landale made it sound like real music.