A team of restorers worked for months to bring the Von Beckerath organ at St. Paul Cathedral back to a playable state. On Sunday afternoon, in one Organ Artist Series of Pittsburgh recital, organist Harald Vogel showed the artistic result with a stellar program of Baroque organ music at the Oakland cathedral.

Vogel gave the audience a splendid overview of the organ's timbral and dynamic ranges. In his hands, the organ's sound took on many different characters, each exquisitely matched to the composition being performed. But in all of the pieces, Vogel maintained a confident and strong temporal precision, expertly timing the cathedral's acoustic resonances.

Installed in 1962, the Von Beckerath is composed of five "choirs" of pipes. The opening performance of Buxtehude's "Praeludium in D-major" drew out the symphonic quality of these choirs when played as a unified whole, and also their spatial and timbral depth when juxtaposed against each other as individual voices.

Vogel showcased the organ's reed choir in Scheidt's "Cantio Sacra." The Von Beckerath can produce an extremely buzzy timbre that Vogel used as background voices to a foreground solo reed voice.

The responsiveness of the organ's stops were expertly displayed through the repeated, single note recitative-like statements within Kerll's "Canzon in D." Likewise, Weckmann's "Praeambulum Primi Toni" highlighted the pitch stability of the Von Beckerath's pedal register.

While the organ shined, Vogel did his part with many strong artistic moments. The highpoint was the pairing of J.S. Bach's harmonization of "Erbram dich mein, O Herre Gott" with the first movement from C.P.E. Bach's Sonata in C Major. The introspective charm of J.S. Bach's arrangement juxtaposed with the boisterous exuberance of his son's composition came together to create an unexpected and pleasantly surprising statement.

Johann Muthel's "Fantasie in G minor" gave Vogel the vehicle to exhibit all of his technical prowess. Vogel played this expansive work from Bach's pupil with nimble fingers and great pedal technique.

Closing off the well-paced program, this work's resonant reverberations spoke to the strong tuning of the Von Beckerath to the acoustics inherent to St. Paul Cathedral.