The more I hear Whitlock’s Organ Sonata the more convinced I am that this is one of the unsung masterpieces of British organ music, so it’s good that Robert Gower’s premiere recording of the work should be reissued in time to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the composer’s death in 1946. The sonata’s none too subtle allusions to Rachmaninov and Delius, not to mention a plethora of other references and influences, enrich Whitlock’s already luscious harmonic vocabulary, and it all gels together splendidly in an organ work with orchestral aspirations perfectly suited to the big English symphonic organ – of which Selby Abbey’s 1909 Hill is a classic example. You would expect Robert Gower, as a leading light in the Percy Whitlock Society, to be an enthusiastic advocate and with his undoubted virtuosic skills he produces an immensely rewarding performance. His own reconstruction of the March from one of Whitlock’s lost orchestral scores rounds this rewarding disc off in a surprisingly rousing fashion.'