Hot on the heels of Desmond Hunter's recording of Stanford's complete sonatas (Priory, 9/94) comes this collection of shorter pieces. Francis Jackson has the easier task of the two, since even the relatively substantial Fantasia and Fugue in D minor never delves into the swamps of turgidity in which the five sonatas dwell. But for all the melodiousness, charm and utter good taste of these well-crafted pieces characteristics which Jackson underlines in his relaxed, flowing performances—I really can't fire up much enthusiasm for them.
The trouble is that most of these pieces are soft and subdued, clearly designed for church use, and don't stand up to the kind of close impersonal scrutiny inherent in any recording. It's no coincidence that the best known are the more passionate and extrovert ones but here this claustrophobic 1950s house organ rather lets the side down. It has all the colours and variety needed (no specification is given in the booklet but a photograph of the console reveals three manuals and a plethora of expression pedals and combination pistons), but sounds as if it is heavily muffled in wool, and certainly its wind supply has a real struggle on its hands to support the rare bursts of full organ.'