In his time reputedly known as ''the best finger of that age'', Gibbons wrote for the organ with an expertise which calls in turn for an expert touch in its performer. These short pieces may sound simple, but it is also the easiest thing in the world to make them sound dull, especially when heard in sequence as here. Happily, in Robert Woolley, they have a player who seeks out the individual character of each, phrasing with care, judicious in the contrasts of staccato and legato, colouring with such imaginative registration as the instrument permits. There is a special interest in the Ploujean organ, which dates back to 1677 and, having been in a sorry state when rediscovered in 1937, emerged still worse after its 'restoration'. Recently the work has been done again, properly this time, as we hear on the disc. The recordings were in fact made shortly before the official 'opening' of the organ in March this year. Its specification is given in the booklet: 15 stops with pedal-to-manual, one manual, 50 notes (pedal 17). The possibilities are not limitless, but here each of the Preludes and Fantasias has its own flavour, and it is repeatedly illuminating to find that so much can be achieved within the limit of a single manual.
The organ pieces are interspersed with a number of choral works, some of them gentle early verse-anthems with pleasant solo voices and quiet, well-articulated organ accompaniment. O Lord, in Thy wrath is among the most moving and expressive of Tudor anthems, and the eight-part O clap your hands among the most triumphant: both are sung by the St John's Choir (in Jesus Chapel, incidentally) with fine assurance and feeling for structure. Something, however, prompted recourse to the old King's recordings under Boris Ord from 1955. There surely is more in those performances: a keener sense of rhythm perhaps, more relish for the changing textures, or just more sense of occasion?'