Maurice Duruflé

The output of organist and composer Maurice Duruflé might be small, but it’s an oeuvre fastidiously crafted and betrays an intimate rapprochement with the rhythmic freedom and supple melodies of Gregorian plainchant. That’s not perhaps surprising, as Duruflé (born in Louviers in 1902) was a boy chorister in the choir of Rouen Cathedral. His composition teacher Paul Dukas excepted, many of Duruflé’s mentors were luminaries of the French organ world such as Charles Tournemire, Louis Vierne and Eugène Gigout. He was a formidable virtuoso, premiering Poulenc’s Organ Concerto in 1939, and remaining titular organist at the prestigious Parisian church of Saint-Étienne-du-Mont for over half a century until his death in 1986, hastened by complications following a severe car accident in 1979. His organ works, though few, remain cornerstones of the repertoire and include the Scherzo, the Prélude, Adagio et Choral varié sur le Thème du “Veni Creator”, the Prélude et Fugue sur le nom d’Alain and the towering Suite, whose “Toccata” is a virtuosic showpiece equally beloved and feared by recitalists. Completed in 1947, Duruflé’s Requiem is one of his finest achievements—like that of Gabriel Fauré, a work enshrining solace. And the lesser-known Messe “Cum Jubilo” (1966) affords a large-scale postscript to the lushly harmonised Quatre Motets sur des thèmes grégoriens, four exquisite miniatures suffused with the fragrance of incense and a beatific serenity.