David Williams Political Editor BBC Wales

BBC News Online continues its series profiling the leaders of the four main political parties in Wales

When a government minister is under pressure, besieged on all sides by his critics and facing demands for his resignation, it is useful to have a point of retreat and solace.

Mike German, the deputy first minister and minister for rural affairs in the Welsh Assembly Government, needed that comfort zone this week.

He returned from Brussels on Tuesday to find farming unions and political opponents baying for his blood because farmers were complaining about the late payments of European subsidies.

Mike German: Musical solace

To compound his problems he had to apologise to the assembly for misleading members over a mislaid report on the thorny issue of GM crop regulations.

As if that was not enough, he then sat down in the assembly chamber only to hear his predecessor and fellow cabinet member Carwyn Jones announce that the assembly would debate a Conservative party censure motion of him next week.

It must have been at that point that Mr German's mind turned to that personal comfort zone of his - his music.

It's a great intellectual challenge which brings you into competition with yourself Mike German

For Mr German it transcends the political divide and presents an opportunity to escape the daily froth of the chamber.

As part of our series to discover that other side of our political leaders, I was invited to a Sunday morning service at the St Phillip Evans Roman Catholic church in Cardiff.

There, at the organ, was Mr. German indulging himself in his abiding interest in music and reinforcing his belief in Christianity.

His faith and his music are equally important to him. "Music," he told me, "can take you to any level. It can distract you; it can make you passionate; it can inspire you and give you thinking time and space.

"If you engage in playing it as well, it's a great intellectual challenge which brings you into competition with yourself."

Mike German: GM debate

That sounds almost as strenuous as the political debates in the assembly chamber this week, but watching Mr German providing the musical accompaniment to the church service, it was clear that he was enjoying every minute of it.

He was totally engrossed in his organ playing and became equally immersed in those moments of congregational participation in the service.

And, of course, there was a time when he was at prayer.

You wondered then whether he was thinking of those political opponents who can be so unmerciful? If he was he showed no signs of it.

Virtuoso performance

Perhaps it helps that Mr German, now 57, had a life before politics.

He spent a great deal of it working in Catholic schools and his appearance in church on Sunday demonstrated his continuing commitment to Catholicism.

But was this combination of music and religion evident in his daily diet of politics?

His answer was a virtuoso performance of political verse.

Politically alive

He almost sang his reply: "It might be Stravinsky one day; Britten or Purcell the next. It depends on the political mood of the day," he told me.

Mr German, who leads the Liberal Democrats in the coalition government, has had his fair share of difficulties in the last two years.

He was accused of fiddling his expenses in a previous job, but a year-long police inquiry and another by Olaf, the European fraud squad, came to nothing.

He had always protested his innocence and he emerged from his troubles battered and bruised but politically very much alive.

He says that his music and his faith has mellowed him in his relationship with his political opponents.

That mellowness will be put to the test again next week when the censure motion is debated.

It may remind him of some of Stravinsky's more discordant notes!