With the majority of our fine organs having been sadly silenced for so many months, it was heartening to see the news report in March 2021 concerning the organists of Salisbury Cathedral, who had the bright idea to musically support those in the nave receiving their Covid inoculations. The cathedral’s organist, David Halls, and his assistant, John Challenger, provided over 270 hours’ worth of live, soothing organ music for those attending.

Now John Challenger has recorded 16 of the most popular pieces, mostly transcriptions, on the wonderful ‘Father’ Willis, recorded with honesty (and a fair amount of wind noise), starting with a brace by Bach. The Air on the G string is beautifully paced, though Jesu, joy of man’s desiring seems sluggish. Elgar’s Chanson de matin is full of colour, with the central section building to a mighty, reedy climax. The full string section shimmers in the Albinoni confection and Maria Theresia Paradis’s gorgeous Siciliano is limpidly alluring. Handel’s Berenice Minuet is equally charming and works well without the 16ft register in the pedal. Saint-Saëns’s Swan is clearly happy to sail down the Avon. Of those pieces written originally for the organ, Vaughan Williams’s Rhosymedre flows gently, growing in splendour, and Mendelssohn’s Third Sonata is smoothness personified.

This splendid anthology – released to raise funds for NHS Charities Together, the membership body for 241 NHS charities – is one of the great positives to have come out of these troubled times and deserves every support and success