Wayne Marshall called it a "concert of madness", but this Battle of the Organs with sparring partner David Briggs (pictured right) was more like a cacophony of loudness.

The concept was imaginative enough: pair the 4-manual Symphony Organ with an impressively voiced Rodgers 3-manual digital instrument, invite two top rank organists to explore the extended range of colours and textures - and see what develops. Not a lot, as it turned out.

What we did get was a lot of noise without much variety. Individually Marshall and Briggs are fine musicians and brilliant performers; together they just indulged in gladiatorial jousting to see who could play loudest and fastest. It made for tiresome and frequently uncomfortable listening.

Despite the ghetto blaster effects - a Bach Sinfonia sounded like a fairground organ, and Wagner's Ride of the Valkyries should have had a health warning - the music's detail was often remarkably clear.

Mozart's two-piano Sonata, K448 worked quite well in a Liszt-transcription sort of way (Marshall and Briggs wisely transferred to Steinways for the Andante) and Boellmann's Suite Gothique acquired some interesting antiphonal perspectives.

Less convincing were Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite (indelicate and scrappily rushed in places), an unbalanced and sloppily conceived busk around the Star Wars theme, and the various solo items.

But it was all too raucous and too long, with an over-reliance on self-indulgent improvisations.

As 10.30 loomed near the near-capacity audience had already begun to dwindle; and when the last item finished (a two-piano improvisation on Mozart, submitted by students from Wordsley School) there was a mass exodus to avoid encores.

David Hart