How impoverished the organist’s repertory would be without that humble but ever so effective musical form, the Passacaglia. From the freshness of Frescobaldi’s first foray, almost 400 years ago, to the increasingly tortuous Teutonic examples by Karg-Elert, Reger et al, the triple-time, repeating ground-bass pattern provides an excellent compositional discipline for composers of all generations and schools.

The best exemplars should grow organically from simple roots to a magisterial denouement. David Hill’s gorgeously coherent programme from Peterborough showcases some of the best of the genre by a septet of English-born composers, starting with Walter Alcock’s cornerstone Introduction and Passacaglia of 1933. He captures the work’s nobility with authority and grace, aided by the cathedral organ’s recently acquired Tuba Mirabilis. A brace of Herbert Murrill’s pithy organ pieces provides a clever contrast. The sinewy Postlude on a Ground does not outstay its welcome and the Carillon’s merry ostinato chatters away cleanly and with élan.

Hill makes a good case for John West’s Passacaglia in B minor. Again, it does what it says on the box and would make a perfect model for a budding writer on how to squeeze the maximum variation from a slim idea. One hopes that its dedicatee, Josef Rheinberger, would have been equally delighted by it. The contrasting moods of Harvey Grace’s Resurgam of 1922 also work well, proving to be more memorable than his Reverie on ‘University’.

The leap back to the 17th century and Orlando Gibbons’s Ground is less dramatic than one might fear, and leads on smoothly to Healey Willan’s effortless Gibbons-inspired Chorale Prelude. This is prefatory to the main dish of the feast – Willan’s mighty Introduction, Passcaglia and Fugue (composed in 1919, and not posthumously in 1969, as the otherwise excellent notes state!). Here Hill gives his 89 stops full rein in a thoroughbred performance which combines commanding control with dramatic turbulence. An interpretation to relish.

Finally, Richard Blackford’s recent Prelude and Passacaglia (2019) carries on stylistically from where Murrill left off 70 years earlier. Textures are inherently spiky (though clean), with further stylistic nods to those 1960s British organ-modernists Leighton, Mathias and Preston. This is a concise essay which is worthy of repeated hearings.

Needless to say that David Hill’s enthusiasm for this generous programme shines through. This, combined with Gary Cole’s immaculate engineering, makes this album a cause for celebration.