These two new releases by York’s own label Boreas look set to cause a splash among the cathedral choir and organ fraternity and should also give huge pleasure to many outside it.

Premiere recordings of major works by Kerry Andrew and Philip Moore make the Ebor Singers’ disc especially rewarding. Andrew’s highly assured York Mass celebrates the choir’s 15th anniversary in 2008.

Its general mood is sombre but with surprising bursts of emotion, especially in the Sanctus. Herbert Howells’s early Salve Regina (1915) sits easily in this company and boasts some gorgeous harmonies. Jonathan Dove’s setting of Dorothy Sayers’s The Three Kings is a surprise and delight.

Moore’s Pilgrimage is a charming five-part journey cleverly constructed around the hymn I Heard The Voice Of Jesus Say (Kingsfold). Words are not always totally clear in the spacious acoustic of St Chad’s Church, but choir ensemble is mouth-wateringly precise. Motets by Tarik O’Regan and Michael Finnissy complete this pleasing menu.

There has been no finer advocate for York Minster’s mighty organ in recent years than John Scott Whiteley, and this romantic excursion brings all his finesse to the fore. Its pièce de resistance is a truly magnificent account of Liszt’s Fantasia and Fugue on Ad Nos, Ad Salutare Undam, a positively symphonic take on a Meyerbeer tune.

Whiteley takes the instrument to its limits. He is equally adept in three Mendelssohn pieces, two Brahms rarities and Reger’s rather overblown but nonetheless welcome Fantasia on How Brightly Shines The Morning Star. And his programme notes are immensely helpful.