William Lloyd Webber (1914-1922) displayed rermarkable musicianship from an early age, giving organ recitals, holding church appointments and accompanying silent films while in his early teens, prior to studying with Ralph Vaughan Williams at the Royal College of Music . Gaining his Fellowship of the Royal College of Organists at the age of 19, he embarked upon a career that blended teaching positions- at the Royal College of Music and as Director of the London College of Music. Further appointents were at All Saints, Margaret Street, London and of the Methodist Church of Westminster Central Hall.

His music, always elegant and assured, is in a late Romantic idiom that is quite different from the much more progressive directions many composers were exploring in the mid 20th century.

The works gathered on this recording are centred around his cantata for Passiontide, " The Saviour", receiving here its first performance. It was written in 1961 for the Choir of Westminster Central Hall. It is written in the style of Stainer's Crucifixion but of a different order of craftmanship and invention. Written for choir and solists. The writing for choir and organ is imaginative and often where the text demands it, exciting.

The short anthems which start the disc are from the 1950s and the short organ pieces are in the choral prelude tradition.

We believe this programme is all previously unrecorded.