Green and Pleasant Land, vol. 2

This is the second volume of a projected 22 CD-set to record all 363 pieces published from 1900 to 1915 in Charles Vincent’s periodical The Organ Loft, which presented mostly contemporary British composers. The youngest represented is Purcell J. Mansfield (1889-1968), whose Concert Scherzo in F provides some relief from the conventional harmonies (with predictable cadences and mostly four-bar phrases) of the remaining pieces. Titles such as ‘A Child at Prayer’, ‘Eventide’, ‘Dawn of Spring’ give some idea, whose styles range from the 19th-century ecclesiastical to cinema organs. Without Bowyer’s commitment, this music, performed splendidly on this English romantic organ (1767, 1885, 1995), might be lost.

DAVID PONSFORD Read the full review on Agora Classica