Reviewed by Steven Whitehead

In the 1870s the 15th Duke of Norfolk, one of the leading Roman Catholic laymen of his day, commissioned the building of a church dedicated to St Philip Neri in his home town of Arundel in Sussex. The architect was J A Hansom, best known for the ubiquitous Hansom-cab, who ensured the building had good acoustics. It became the Cathedral Church of Our Lady and St Philip Howard in 1965. Duke Henry equipped his new church with an organ which has recently been restored and is here given its first solo recording by the renowned organ virtuoso Daniel Moult. The programme is wide ranging but not explicitly Christian so will be of interest to those who collect organ music without necessarily attracting those who appreciate music as an aid for contemplation. We open with Franz Liszt's "Excelsior!" that certainly grabs our attention which is followed by three popular pieces in Felix Mendelssohn's "Theme And Variations In D", Mozart's "Fantasia In F Minor" and Edwin Lemarc's transcription of Camille Saint-Saens "Danse Macabre" which lodged itself into my head so firmly that I have been humming it ever since. Things then went flat for me with the debut recording of W T Best's arrangement of Handel's "Organ Concerto No 4 in F" which seemed to take a long time (16 minutes) to go nowhere much. Things soon pick up again with Stanford's "Fantasia And Toccata In D Minor", Graham Firkin's "Wedding" and another new recording in Derek Bourgeois' "Variation On A Theme by Herbert Howells" and concluding with the lively "Brumba" by Paul Patterson. So your reviewer enjoyed eight out of the nine pieces and can confirm that the recording is of the usual impeccable standard we have come to expect from Regent Records, allowing us to appreciate the excellent playing of Mr Moult.

The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those held by Cross Rhythms. Any expressed views were accurate at the time of publishing but may or may not reflect the views of the individuals concerned at a later date.

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