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I allowed myself to add your comment to the video description.

Thank you Mr. Kemped. It is indeed the composer himself playing, as is the case with most of the videos on this channel.

Thank you, that's very kind. While I am not of the opinion that recordings made by the composers themselves should be taken as gospel, even if the composer in question was a first-rate performer, I do think they offer an intriguing insight.

Then this channel was not created in vain. Similarly calm pieces: The "Chant Donné" and the "Méditation".

Open fire is prohibited in the comment section. Thank you for your understanding.

@G G Yes, for the Toccata, I think he said publicly once that he "...regretted having composed it" (at least I read it somewhere). The reason is clear for me : this piece, though brilliant, has not the spiritual deepness and the mysticism he was aiming at constantly in his life, which is obvious in the Prelude. But anyway..., in spite of what he tought, the Toccata has become one of the most appreciated and aknowledged XXth c. organ work here in Europe. Young boy, I saw him once, with my organ professor, after a performance of his Requiem in his church Saint-Etienne-du-Mont in the 80's, and keep this moment as a precious treasure in my memory.

@@pyraledubuis9744 yes, elsewhere here on youtube is the audio of a masterclass he gives and at the end he takes questions and asks if they would like to hear one of his pieces but adds (in french of course, his wife translates) "but not the Toccata!" he is asked why he dislikes it although it is beloves by organists around the world. he replied "because he feels it has bad themes"

he also said it was his personal favorite work of his. amazing how he feels that despite the brilliance and popularity of the Requiem.

C'est peut-être mon œuvre préférée du maître. Ne manquez pas la deuxième partie!

Les marches harmoniques en canon sont jouissives... Perfections des lignes mélodiques, des couleurs harmoniques, et dans l'art de faire sonner l'instrument.

Le chant donné est basée sur un mélodie de Gallon, tandis que la fugue utilise un thème de Rabaud. En citant Michael Ferguson à propos de la fugue: "With this piece, Maurice Duruflé won a premièr prix in fugue at the Paris Conservatoire. The year was 1928, and Duruflé was then a remarkable young man of 26. Though his greatest works were yet to be written, this heretofore unknown fugue provides a clear sense of the already astonishing power of his artistic imagination. The fugue is a test-piece, of course, and Duruflé was required to write a pure ‘Bachian’ counterpoint, within a common-practice harmonic framework, upon an assigned theme by Henri Rabaud. Like the other students competing, Duruflé was locked in a room from 6 am until 11:30 pm, provided with only pencil and music paper. No piano, no reference books. Under such circumstances, a real piece of music is about the last thing one would expect as a result. And yet, that is what Duruflé created, and it compels our attention." birolius-editions.stores.yahoo.net/catalogue.html#durufle

Everything this man wrote is golden. It is not only a shame that he wrote so little, but also that what little he did write is performed so rarely. I guess the organ music is played from time to time, but even then you need a very competent organist. As for the Requiem, it is very difficult to find performances of the original version for full orchestra, and his orchestral works Opp.6&8 are not performed at all. Apparently, he made an orchestration of his Sicilienne, but I don't know if it has ever been performed, let alone recorded. We should be glad that he only came to despise his Toccata after its publication, otherwise he might have suppressed it as well.

you would like this orchestrated version of the Suite op. 5 . when i first heard it i thought it could have been by Durufle himself. th-cam.com/video/Ln9Bjkjn5QY/w-d-xo.html

from what i understand, he was also working on a piano reduction version of the Requiem, but it was incomplete at the time of his death. I agree that it is a shame that we will probably never see the Triptyque Op. 1 released, as he had it withdrawn from publication

My pleasure. There was already another score video of this work, but it did not use Duruflé's own recording, most likely due to the fact that the composer disapproved of the Toccata and therefore never recorded it.

Glorious, isn't it? I wish the work were always performed like that.

@@UnofficialDurufleaccentaigu Just a week ago Olivier Latry made a similar atempt with Salve Regina. th-cam.com/video/pxglIARyI4U/w-d-xo.html

Where? I'm his greatest fan!

@@UnofficialDurufleaccentaigu I'm taken back - the compositionally fine and I like it, but I find too much work for the pianist specially the ending. Not fair! If I may say more (nobody cares my opinion anyway but) I don't find flute+viola sound blend well in this. For which purpose did he compose this? For himself to play or for someone else or occasion?

@@itchy2345 It is true that the piano part is quite demanding, but I prefer compositions with a well written piano part over those with poorly written ones. I am not quite sure if one can expect a flute and a viola to blend in the first place, let alone with a piano. The piece was written in 1928 and dedicated to Jacques Durand, the famous publisher who died that year. I do not know if his death prompted the composition or if the dedication was an afterthought. I believe Duruflé never performed it, although I am sure he easily could have. How much do you know about the other works of Duruflé? Besides the organ and choral music, there are two orchestral compositions which I can not recommend highly enough: Trois Danses Op.6 and Andante et Scherzo Op.8, the scherzo in question being a loose orchestration of his Op.2.

@@UnofficialDurufleaccentaigu To be honest I don't know any other work by Monsieur Duruflé. I know this by chance ("know" is too much, I just know of the existance) because I have CD by Brautigam, Imai and Bezaly (recommended!). Anyway, thanks for the rare chamber music, I wouldn't have paid attention without this score video.

@@itchy2345 He made a transcription of his Trois Danses Op.6 for piano solo and another one for piano four hands and yet another one for two pianos. You might want to look into that...

My pleasure. I am particularly fond of the Chant Donné; it is remarkable how much music there is in these few notes. Cheers!

@@UnofficialDurufleaccentaigu yes, its a shame its so short really, the harmonies are beautiful.

​@@julianmatthews5785 I concur. It is remarkable that the piece is almost entirely diatonic. As Strauss once remarked: "Simple and ingenious are most of the time synonymous."

@@UnofficialDurufleaccentaigu ...so simple that all the essence of a great and touching piece appears as obvious. Concerning the Fugue, I think the Scherzo composed two years earlier is much more rich and musically interesting (though probably not composed in 18 hours !).