Maurice Duruflé - Sicilienne (Suite pour Orgue, Op.5)

Adam Wilson plays Maurice Duruflé's Sicilienne (from the Suite pour Orgue, Op.5) on the newly restored 1879 'Father' Willis/Harrison & Harrison organ of St Mary's Episcopal Cathedral, Edinburgh.

Maurice Duruflé (1902-1986) was a chorister at the re-established Rouen Cathedral Choir School, and the experience of the plainsong and choral tradition there was to form a lasting impression on the young boy. He also studied piano and organ there, before moving to Paris for private organ and composition lessons with Charles Tournemire at seventeen, before entering the Conservatoire de Paris the following year.

Throughout his time at university and for a few years after, Duruflé assisted Tournemire at the Basilique Ste-Clotilde, and in 1927, Louis Vierne, the famous organist of Notre Dame Cathedral, appointed him to assist him there; shortly after, Duruflé was appointed as titular organist of Saint-Étienne-du-Mont, near the Panthéon in the Latin Quarter, which he retained (with his wife assisting him as he had Tournemire and Vierne) to the end of his life.
In addition to his organ positions, Duruflé became Professor of Harmony at the Conservatoire in 1943, and was made a Chevalier de la Legion d'honneur in 1954 (promoted in 1966 to Officer).
Duruflé said in his famous Requiem, Op. 9, that he considered his life's purpose was to perfect "an aesthetic of the beautiful".

Duruflé was highly self-critical of his work, and left behind a small but immensely distinguished collection of music. He said in his famous Requiem, Op. 9, that he considered his life's purpose was to perfect "an aesthetic of the beautiful".
The Sicilienne from his Suite, Op. 5, characterises this goal, and Duruflé wrote that his aim had been "the contrasting of of timbres and a quest for colour ... as well as putting into relief the evocative character" of this melancholic pastoral style associated with Sicily.
It is imbued with the various inspirations he was affected by, particularly the melodic beauty of the plainchant he was surrounded by in his childhood in, the counterpoint of Bach in the elegant polyphonic accompaniments (particularly the five-voice middle section), and the Impressionism Debussy and Ravel in the colouring, harmonic language, texture, and atmosphere. It also owes a natural debt to Fauré's famous Sicilienne from his Pelléas et Mélisande Suite.

The Sicilienne seems to paint a picture of a pastoral scene, perhaps of the Sicilian countryside or the Parisian streets near the Panthéon coloured by dusk. Its main theme appears three times (oboe, clarinet, then oboe) and is developed in two episodes. the texture of second episode, with Duruflé's alternative pedal registration (Vox Humana) for the distorted theme, is hauntingly gargoyle-esque: it brings to mind Monet's series of paintings of Rouen Cathedral (1894), where the composer had spent so much time in his youth.
Despite its formal structure, the piece retains an improvisatory flow, which aids the Impressionistic atmosphere. Vierne had hailed Duruflé as ‘an improviser with abundant and varied imagination. Utterly sensitive and poetic, he has a rare, perceptive gift for composition’.

[edwardhart]

Great interpretation of this piece, one can see you have given a great deal of thought into tempo and registration, Thankyou as always Adam