Dotted around the vast output of British organ composers of the 19th and 20th centuries is a tiny handful of large-scale solo sonatas. Mendelssohn (an honorary Brit when it comes to the organ) started it off with his six, and only Elgar’s single contribution to the genre seems to have earned itself a lasting place in the concert repertory. Of the others, only those by Edward Bairstow and Percy Whitlock have found sufficient advocates to present alternatives to anyone seeking them out on disc. By my reckoning, this is the seventh performance of the Whitlock to have made its way into the catalogues, and it stands comparison with any of the others.

Philip Rushforth, the current director of music at Chester Cathedral, is mercifully keen to underplay Whitlock’s self-confessed obsession with Rachmaninov’s Second Symphony and concentrate on his wholly idiomatic writing for the organ, not least in a delightfully delicate Scherzetto. He proves to be a strong advocate for the music and my only reservation is that the Chester organ comes across as a little too stodgy to do justice both to Rushforth’s flighty fingerwork and Whitlock’s subtly nuanced writing.

The organ acquits itself much better in music by one of its previous masters, Charles Hylton Stewart, who was Chester organist between 1930 and 1932. His only published organ work appeared in 1928 with a dedication to Whitlock. Much in the style of an organist’s improvisations around familiar hymn tunes, the Short and Easy Pieces offer more the chance to sample the organ’s comforting qualities than Rushforth’s virtuoso prowess but he proves to be a generous and sympathetic champion of his predecessor’s music and elevates these pieces to moments of real musical affection. A disc of warm-hearted music played with considerable distinction.