Many church organs are under-used in the sense that they are played for Sunday service but rarely exercised by recitalists.

What can happen if they are was perfectly demonstrated at this lunchtime concert by Sean Montgomery, who for nine years was organist of All Saints, Royal Leamington Spa, a church with a continuing musical tradition.

He put the St. Mary’s instrument through a testing programme, beginning with Bach's Prelude and Fugue in A minor (BWV 543) and ending with an arrangement of Walton's orchestral Crown Imperial.

An organ can be temperamental but it is the extent to which it suits its immediate surroundings that behoves the organist to play to its strengths. The figurations of the Bach piece were clearly articulated and Walton's pomp and circumstance were achieved without over-larding, though the arrangement does help.

Despite nimble fingers in Bonnet's Elfes and languid phrasing in Howells' Rhapsody No 1 in D flat, the need paradoxically to flood the air with sound for the two most disarming pieces on display seemed not completely within the instrument's capabilities.

But to confound the issue, as organs are apt to, the passive section of Franck's Chorale No 3 in A minor floated ethereally to contrast with its pillar-like opening and close, a structure Mr Montgomery erected and maintained with firm focus.

As Gwent's newest arts festival, St. Mary's can be proud of the professional way it presented this recital, with a video-screen link and camera switches dovetailed with the score. Well done!