This is neither the first, nor will it be the last, recording to be billed as an “Organ Spectacular”. But it is one of the very few where that title is not only entirely apt but verges on the understatement.

First, there is spectacular music. Guy Bovet's Hamburger Totentanz combines humour (not least with a delicious quotation from Für Elise) and brilliant organ effects in a way which can only be described as spectacular, Murrill's Carillon sets that spectacular St Paul's acoustic buzzing, while the Bairstow Scherzo sets off some spectacular aural fireworks.

Second, there is some truly spectacular playing. Huw Williams shows himself not just a master at this particular gargantuan instrument but has real musical perceptiveness, bringing to spectacular life music which many of us might take for granted. That most spectacular organ showpiece of them all, Widor's Toccata, receives here a performance which, in a market which is not so much saturated as overwhelmed, comes very near the top of my list of favourites, while even such reserved gems as Whitlock's lovely Folk Tune and Howells's haunting Master Tallis's Testament come over with unusual depth and intensity.

And finally there is a truly spectacular organ. Oddly, the disc is billed as being “the last solo recording of the instrument before the organ undergoes major refurbishment and restoration”, which makes it seem as if we are hearing something on its very last legs. But that is not the case at all; you'd have to go a very long way to hear an organ which can set the spine shivering and the goose-bumps erupting so powerfully as the St Paul's instrument does with the build up to the spectacular climax of Thalben-Ball's Elegy.

In short, a truly spectacular disc which can be unreservedly recommended to anyone who has even the remotest interest in organ music.

-- Marc Rochester, Gramophone [1/2007]