How many who pass by Brentwood in Essex on their daily commute to work in London know that it boasts a cathedral, I wonder? True, it’s only been there since 1991 and hardly dominates the town; but not only is it a lovely building, combining the Italian Renaissance with Wren’s Classical lines, it also boasts a fine organ by Percy Daniel of Clevedon which William Saunders here displays in an interesting programme of music composed within the last half a century.

Perhaps the building’s generous acoustic rather muddies the clean lines of Christopher Steel’s jolly suite and blunts the rhythmic vigour of Rutter’s lightweight Toccata but this is more than compensated for by the bright, perky and crisp voicing of the organ itself – most vividly displayed in the sparkling open of Gardner’s Dances and the sprightly marching tread of Mathias’s Recessional – and Saunders’s rhythmically vital and athletically inclined playing. The recording feels a little distant but the whole thing exudes bright cheer and happiness; and you can’t say that about every organ recording.

Not exactly a “world premiere recording” as claimed in the booklet (Hyperion got there first, but with just three of the 12 movements), Iain Farrington’s Animal Parade gives the disc its title (even if the cover image depicts two animals which don’t appear musically). Despite a superficial nod towards Saint-Saëns’s Carnival, this is very much an original work. Not uniformly successful and possibly in need of the optional narrations to break it up, Saunders nevertheless communicates the wit and humour admirably, and while I can’t accept Farrington’s impudent inclusion of “Critics” in his zoological catalogue, my resentment is easily assuaged by this delightfully happy and unaffected playing.