Organist Review
Maurice Duruflé
CD 1
Requiem, op. 9
1. Introït
2. Kyrie
3. Domine Jesu Christe
4. Sanctus
5. Pie Jesu
6. Agnus Dei
7. Lux Aeterna
8. Libera me
9. In Paradisum
10. Méditation, op. posth.
Quatre Motets sur des thèmes grégoriens, op. 10
11. Ubi caritas
12. Tota pulchra es
13. Tu es Petrus
14. Tantum ergo
Prélude et fugue sur le nom d’ALAIN, op. 7
15. Prélude
16. Fugue
CD 2
1. Fugue sur le thème du carillon des heures de la cathédrale de Soissons, op. 12
Prélude, adagio et choral varié sur le thème du Veni Creator, op. 4
2. Prélude
3. Adagio
4. Choral varié
5. Prélude sur l’Introït de l’Épiphanie, op. 13
6. Scherzo, op. 2
7. Chant donné – hommage à Jean Gallon
Suite, op. 5
8. Prélude
9. Sicilienne
10. Toccata
Maurice Duruflé ©
Duruflé was born on the 11th of January in the year 1902 in Louviers, Normandy, and was the son of an architect. There was no tradition of professional music performance in his family, but as the young Maurice Duruflé showed great musical talent, his parents enrolled him at a church music boarding school, in association with the cathedral in Rouen. Duruflé started at the school in the year 1912. and spent the following seven years there. The school was tough with a fixed schedule from 6 am to 8.30 pm. The students were taught choral singing, general musical skills, as well as classical subjects including Latin and Greek. During his school years, it became clear to everyone that Duruflé had very special talents, especially as an organist. Therefore, he was sent for organ lessons in Paris in the year 1919 with one of the greatest organistsat that time, Charles Tournemire. With this erratic teacher, he received instruction in improvisation which was every organist’s main knowledge for playing at the church masses. He was also educated in the classical organ repertoire through the works of composers such as J. S. Bach, and the recent works by Cesar Franck, who had been Tournemire’s predecessor as organist at St. Clotilde in Paris. Later, Duruflé substituted for Tournemire at St. Clotilde where he had the opportunity to become acquainted with one of the city’s finest instruments. A smaller disagreement, mostly because of Tournemire’s temper, led to the end of their cooperation after a few months.
Meanwhile, Duruflé had moved to Paris to be able to hear the city’s most important organists play in church services and improvise on the Gregorian themes. He continued his organ studies with the somewhat milder in personality, Louis Vierne, who was the organist at Notre-Dame. Vierne helped Duruflé prepare for the audition at the music conservatory in 1920. Duruflé had also quickly become a substitute for Vierne at Notre Dame. Their relationship developed into a close friendship that lasted until Viernes sudden death in the middle of his 1750th concert at the Notre-Dame, where Duruflé sat by his side as the page turner.
Duruflé‘s teachers at the music conservatory included Eugène Gigout (organ), Jean Gallon (harmony), and Charles-Marie Widor and Paul Dukas (composition). He also continued his private studies with Vierne while studying at the music conservatory. Duruflé won the “premier prix” (first price) in the subjects of organ, harmony, fugue, accompaniment and composition. He participated in two different competitions organized by the Association of professional organists in Paris “Amis de l’orgue” where he won the first price two times: in 1929 as an organist and in 1930 as composer. The winning piece was the “Prélude, adagio a choral varie sur le Veni Creator, op. 4.” From there, Duruflé’s professional career began to taje shape, and Duruflé appeared as a soloist and orchestral musician in several musical happenings from the year 1930s and onward. For example, he was the soloist in the first performance of Francis Poulenc’s famous Organ Concerto in 1938 as well as he premiered the 6th Organ Symphony of Vierne in Notre Dame in the year 1935. He received great recognition among critics and colleagues for how he mastered the extremely demanding piece. In 1929 Duruflé was chosen to be “organiste titulaire” at the St Etienne du Mont, recommended by Vierne. The St Etienne du Mont had no tradition of prominent organists, unlike the Notre-Dame and St Clotilde. The church’s organ was in such bad shape that Vierne described it as “a horrible Cuckoo”. Nevertheless, it has probably been a personal satisfaction to the architect’s son to be linked to the very impressive church. In the first decade of Duruflé’s employment at the church, his major organ compositions came into existence. However, a long restoration period of the organ, interrupted by the Second World War, meant that the instrument could not be used to perform his music properly until many years later.
The positions as “organiste titulaire” at the main churches in Paris was in Duruflé’s time very modestly paid as it still remains today. It is more of an honorary position. Duruflé was like his colleagues, therefore, very dependent on other sources of income. In 1943, Duruflé was appointed professor of harmony at the music conservatory and was the mentor of a new generation of young organists including Pierre Cochereau, Jean Guillou, and Marie-Claire Alain. Duruflé also was the substitute teacher for the organ virtuous Marcel Dupré during his long international tours. It was during this time he met his future wife in second marriage, Marie-Madelaine Chevalier. Marie-Madelaine also became his assistant in his office in St Etienne du Mont and a leading interpreter of her husband’s compositions. In 1975 Duruflé had to halt his career as performer after a violent car accident. Fortunately, he continued to inspire young musicians from home and abroad as a teacher while looking back on a thriving international career as an organist, conductor and composer. Duruflé died the 16th of June in the year1986 at a nursing home in the suburb of Louveciennes
RELEASE DATE: MARCH 2012
CATALOGUE NUMBER: DACOCD 726
EAN: 5709499726006
