Hyperion Records

The Five Short Pieces were written in 1929 while Whitlock was still in Rochester; they were published the following year just after his move to Bournemouth, and they brought him his first major success as a composer: ‘among the most encouraging of recent organ publications’, said the Musical Times, ‘… the music has tune and freshness’. The engaging stylistic diversity of these unpretentious works was prophetic of Whitlock’s future career: two light concert pieces (Nos 1 and 4), together with two sweetly melodic slow movements (Nos 2 and 3) and a rousing finale, these three equally suited to either church or concert hall.

from notes by David Gammie © 2004