Noted for his skill at improvising fugues and for introducing many of the keyboard works of J.S. Bach to England, Samuel Wesley was one of his country's most gifted composers and organists, though he was later eclipsed by his son, the famous anthem composer Samuel Sebastian Wesley, and his music became obscure by the middle of the nineteenth century. Though interest in Wesley's works rose in the 1970s and has continued ever since, there are still too few recordings on CD; there is every reason, then, to appreciate
Jennifer Bate's valuable contribution to the composer's small discography. Wesley's sets of variations on such familiar themes as God Save the King and Rule, Britannia are accessible and good pieces to start with, since they demonstrate his lively imagination in the playful treatment of the melodies. The suite-like Voluntaries are richer in counterpoint and more substantial in their formal designs, and hearing them prepares the listener for the weighty Prelude, Arietta, and Fugue in C minor, the most Bach-like work of the program.
Bate plays these pieces on the organ of St. James' Church, Bermondsey, which dates from Wesley's time, and has a modest but sufficiently varied registration that works well with these late Classical pieces. The reproduction by Somm is clear and spacious, with wonderful resonance and little noise except from the instrument's mechanisms.