Fifty years ago it became an error of taste to play organ transcriptions. At this point, organists who decided to wash themselves clean of all such impurity reduced their audiences very considerably. Bach would not have understood the purist attitude and, indeed, not only was he a prolific transcriber, but some of his best-loved music has become transferred to the organ in modern times. Arthur Wills has included many favourites in this programme, using transcriptions of his own, which carry the origianl music into the organ loft of Ely Cathedral and invest it with the glowing colours of that splendid instrument. The three pieces which took my fancy were Jesu, joy of man's desiring, with an unusual bell-like obbligato, Subdue us by thy goodness, an effervescent performance and the Chaconne from the D minor Violin Partita, broadened to encompass an incredible procession of effects, including fanfare trumpets at three pitches. Elsewhere, primarily in the Sinfonia from Cantata No. 29, there was a certain untidiness, partly due to the melting effect of the acoustic. To my mind, this could have been improved by calmer phrasing and, here and there a slower tempo.
But the gramophone record is unique as a medium for clarifying the tumbling cumuli of cathedral organ tone. Those who prefer their organ music more mysterious will be quite happy with this record.'