David Humphreys, formerly assistant organist at St Edmundsbury and now moved up the road (as it were) to Peterborough, concentrates on English music while James Thomas, the St Edmundsbury organist, indulges his penchant for all things French. Neither offers up barnstorming or revelatory interpretations – indeed, the whole thing exudes an aura of polished after-Evensong voluntary, the Messiaen pieces in particular more cardigan and slippers than beret and striped shirt. The cathedral’s own musical heritage is not celebrated (no Harrison Oxley, for example); nor is the musical legacy of its attached diocese (no Britten). What we do have is a jolly romp through some personal favourites of the organists on a truly splendid instrument with its feet firmly rooted in the noble English cathedral tradition. Add to that Regent’s characteristically attractive package of a handsome booklet and a marvellous recording, and you have a thoroughly satisfying disc.

There are some issues. Considering Norman Cocker’s impeccable credentials as a theatre organist, Thomas’s account of the Tuba Tune is decidedly short on swagger, while Humphreys rather misses out on the rhapsodic nature of the Howells in his laudable desire to show off the instrument’s wonderful dynamic range. But with his gloriously assertive Stanford and, especially, Thomas’s vivid account of the splendid Roger-Ducasse Pastorale – a work which has always struck me as closely akin to a student counterpoint exercise drawn up under the influence of a hallucinogenic drug – there’s more than enough here to satisfy the most critical of ears.