Virtuoso organ concertos are rare and rarely heard. So one of the great attractions of the final of the Royal College of Organists' Performer of the Year competition was the opportunity to hear unfamiliar music played with verve. Other attractions included the contribution of the BBC Philharmonic under the spirited baton of Rumon Gamba. And in some ways the greatest attraction of all was Wayne Marshall, who cheerfully - and with a disarming lack of offensiveness - upstaged all the competitors with a stunning performance of the finale of Saint-Saëns's Organ Symphony and a riveting 15-minute improvisation. As organist-in-residence since the hall was opened, Marshall knows its marvellous Marcussen organ inside out and can find more colours there than anybody else; his improvisation also showed an exceptional control of musical pace and harmonic colour. In his hands the future of the organ recital seems assured.

But the three competitors also gave superb performances; you could never have guessed that none of them knew which concerto he would be playing until shortly before the concert. Jonathan Scott led off with Samuel Barber's Toccata Festivo, composed in 1960. This is a glitteringly virtuosic work that needs to be heard far more often; Scott played it with effortless skill, blending his registration miraculously with the sound of the orchestra. Nobody was surprised to learn that he won the vote of the audience. Poulenc's acerbic organ concerto is more often heard; Philip Rushforth played it with confidence but with less instinct for the orchestral sound around him.

Rarest of all, though, was Joseph Rheinberger's Second Organ Concerto of 1894. A superb example of the soupy late-Romantic style cultivated in Germany, it is skilfully scored but far less designed for an organist to display virtuosity. Clive Driskill-Smith gave a sensitive and well-judged performance. The judges were therefore wise to make it clear that their decision to award the first prize to Driskill-Smith was based at least partly on what had happened in earlier rounds of the competition. Plainly the future of the organ concerto as a genre will depend on more composers being prepared to write works that genuinely exploit virtuosity. With players like these, though, they should find the challenge stimulating.