{TABLE} Sonata in G minor, Op 49, No 1 ........... Beethoven Reflection ............................... John Kinsella Sonata in C minor, Op 111 ................ Beethoven {/TABLE} GEOFFREY BUCKLEY, who gave last Friday's piano recital in the John Field Room of the NCH, commissioned John Kinsella's Reflection, but it might have been better to have put its first Irish performance at the beginning of the recital instead of sandwiching, it between two of Beethoven's sonatas.

Beethoven had the advantage of working in familiar forms; Kinsella's loose construction was diffuse in comparison and the sense of tension and growth in the energetic sections was lost in the quieter episodes.

It is true that Buckley's playing was most persuasive when it was at its most forceful, the Sonata Op. 49 by Beethoven, with its Mozartean touches sounded unsure of its origins, and Op. III was disappointing in its meditative moments. In the first, movement, Buckley played with such force that the music almost ran out of steam before the final cadence, but in the second movement the music developed in satisfying fashion, each variation more exciting than its predecessor.