Timothy Byram-Wigfield at the organ of St George’s Chapel, Windsor
REGENT REGCD200
72'36"
www.regentrecords.com

The Coronation March by Tchaikovsky, in Bennett’s arrangement, is a worthy opener to any recital but here on the Harrison and Harrison organ housed in St George’s Chapel,Windsor, it simply sounds magnificent under Timothy Byram-Wigfield’s control, now happily ensconced in his new post as Director of Music at the Chapel.

An eclectic programme fills the disc with nice surprises, however, I found Bach on this organ sounding a little muffled despite Byram-Wigfield’s distinguished playing, and I didn’t get the right feel from Georg Böhm’s Choral Prelude: Vater unser in Himmelreich.

The following Scherzo from Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream had little edge to the sound to help distinguish those diminutive notes that infect the piece, though, again, none of this seems out of favour with the way in which Byram-Wigfield approaches his performance. Indeed it all began to sound muffled, the recording distant; that may have been the intention but it didn’t work for me.

My ears ‘popped’ when I reached Reger’s Chorale-Fantasia: Hallelujah, Gott zu loben by force of volume but again here Byram-Wigfield proves a worthy practitioner, not only of Reger, but a whole range of composers as evident on this disc. Somehow, though, the organ seemed at a loss in certain respects and I can’t determine whether it’s the instrument, the organist or the engineer in this case. But none of this should put you off buying it, when, having heard the disc, you can write to me and tell me I was talking nonsense! DA