Felix Mendelssohn Prelude and Fugue in D minor

One of 3 Preludes & Fugues, Opus 37, the first version of the fugue was written in 1833 at the bequest of his friend Thomas Atwood, then finalised and accompanied by its prelude in April 1837.

The prelude is fast and full of brilliant manual passagework that grows faster and faster as the piece moves along. The following four-voice fugue is marked Volles Werk (meaning that the instrument's stops are to be freely deployed in pursuit of a full, rich sound), and is probably the most wholly traditional, and the most clinically Baroque-sounding, of the three Opus 37 fugues.

William Harris Prelude in E flat

From 'Four Short Pieces' for Organ written in 1938 while Director of Music at St George's Chapel, Windsor. Sir William's time in Windsor was his most prolific as a composer, and included 'Michaelangelo's Confession of Faith' written for the Worcester Three Choirs Festival in 1935 and conducted by the composer himself.

William Harris A fancy 

A tribute to Percy Whitlock, this piece is  a gorgeously etched miniature written and published in 1947 after Whitlock's tragically early death the year before.

Frank Bridge Three pieces for organ (1939) – (Prelude, Minuet and Processional)

Written in 1939, 2 years before his death, Bridge was dedicated to composition and received the patronage of Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge. He privately tutored a number of pupils, the most famous of which was Benjamin Britten who paid homage to him in the Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge (1937)

Percy Whitlock Divertimento

From the collection of pieces 'The Percy Whitlock Organ Album'.  A student of Vaughan Williams at the Royal College of Music, Whitlock combined elements of his teacher's output and that of Elgar developing a lush harmonic style that also bore traces of Gershwin and other popular composers of the 1920s. Like Vaughan Williams and Delius, he often used themes that sounded like folksongs but were, in fact, original creations.

Herbert Howells Psalm Prelude set.2 no.2

Howells wrote two sets of Psalm Preludes, each including 3 settings of Psalm texts illuminated in music. Set 2 was written between 1938 and 1939 following the untimely death of his son Michael, aged 9 - a time when he wrote some of his most beautiful and heart rending music. No. 2 is a musical representation of Psalm 139 verse 11 "Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me"

Henry Smart Postlude in D

This is one of  Smart's best known work composed in 1871, eight years before his death, while organist at St Pancras New Church in London. Smart was practically blind for the last 15 years of his life, but was highly rated by his English contemporaries.