Durufle's Op. 5

Synopsis

On today’s date in 1935, at the Church of Saint François-Xavier in Paris, organist Geneviève de la Salle gave the first complete performance of the three-movement Suite by French composer, teacher and virtuoso organist Maurice Duruflé.

If you sing in a choir or are a fan of choral music, you’re probably familiar with Duruflé’s serene and tranquil Requiem, which premiered 12 years later.

Duruflé’s Op. 5 premiered in 1935, his Op. 9 in 1947, so you might reasonably conclude the composer was a slow worker — which he was. He was also a very self-critical perfectionist whose catalog of works is rather small, but exquisitely crafted. In all, Duruflé’s output comprises less than 15 published works, of which seven are for organ.

Duruflé’s music is firmly embedded in the French tradition of organ composers like César Franck and Louis Vierne, and orchestral composers like Debussy, Ravel and Duruflé’s own composition teacher, Paul Dukas. Great French organist Marie-Claire Alain, when asked to describe Duruflé’s music, replied “it is a perfectly honest art … he was not an innovator but a traditionalist … Duruflé evolved and amplified the old traditions, making them his own.”

Music Played in Today's Program

Maurice Durufle (1902-1986): Organ Suite; Todd Wilson, organ; Schudi organ at St. Thomas Aquinas Church in Dallas, Texas; Delos 3047

On This Day

Births

• 1752 - Italian composer Muzio Clementi, in Rome

• 1878 - English composer Rutland Boughton, in Aylesbury

Deaths

• 1837 - Irish composer John Field, 54, in Moscow (Julian date: Jan. 11)

• 1908 - American composer and pianist Edward MacDowell, 47, in New York

• 1981 - American composer Samuel Barber, 70, in New York

Premieres

• 1724 - Bach: Sacred Cantata No. 73 (Herr, Wie Du Willst, so Schicks Mit Mir) performed on the third Sunday after Epiphany as part of Bach’s first annual Sacred Cantata cycle in Leipzig (1723/24)

• 1729 - Bach: Sacred Cantata No. 156 (Ich Steh mit Einem Fuss im Grabe) probably performed in Leipzig on the third Sunday after Epiphany as part of Bach's fourth annual Sacred Cantata cycle (to texts by Christian Friedrich Henrici, a.k.a. “Picander”) during 1728/29

• 1895 - MacDowell: Suite No. 2 (Indian), at the old Metropolitan Opera House in New York City, by the Boston Symphony, with Emil Paur conducting. On the same program, MacDowell appeared as the soloist in his own Piano Concerto No. 1.

• 1933 - Bartók: Piano Concerto No. 2, in Frankfurt, with Hans Robaud conducting and the composer as soloist

• 1936 - Chavez: Sinfonia India, on a radio broadcast by the Columbia Symphony, conducted by the composer

• 1948 - Diamond: Symphony No. 4, by the Boston Symphony, Leonard Bernstein conducting

• 1963 - Peter Mennin: Symphony No. 7, by the Cleveland Orchestra, George Szell conducting

• 1973 - Elliott Carter: String Quartet No. 3, in New York City, by the Juilliard String Quartet; This work won the Pulitzer Prize for music in that year (This was Carter's second Pulitzer Prize)

• 1999 - Thea Musgrave: Three Women, in San Francisco, by the Women’s Philharmonic, A. Hsu conducting

Others

• 1894 - Czech composer Antonin Dvořák presents a concert of African-American choral music at Madison Square Concert Hall in New York, using an all-black choir, comprised chiefly of members of the St. Philip's Colored Choir. On the program was the premiere performance of Dvořák’s arrangement of Stephen Foster’s Old Folks at Home, which featured vocal soloists Sissierette Jones and Harry T. Burleigh.

• 1943 - Duke Ellington and his orchestra present their first concert at Carngie Hall in New York, presenting the official premiere of Ellington’s Black, Brown and Beige suite (This work had received its world premiere at a trial performance the preceding day at Rye High School in Rye, New York).