Maurice Duruflé - TOCCATA - Suite Op.5 (Score Video)

Roberto Bertero at the Great Organ Dominique Oberthür of Saint-Étienne Cathedral, Auxerre (F).
In this video I am playing Maurice Duruflé's grandiose Toccata, epic concluding movement from his Suite Op.5.
This piece perfectly embodies the period that saw the birth of an actual "organ technical revolution" (between the end of 1800 and 1900), thanks to the development of the art of organ building accompanied by the compositional genius of the great French masters.
The great organ literature, without forgetting its polyphonic and contrapuntal foundations, could now soar freely even in those figurations typical of keyboard virtuosity that until then had been associated exclusively with the piano.
Maurice Duruflé (born in 1902) became a chorister at the Rouen Cathedral Choir School from 1912 to 1918, where he studied piano and organ with Jules Haelling, a pupil of Alexandre Guilmant.
The choral plainsong tradition at Rouen became a strong and lasting influence!
At age 17, upon moving to Paris, he took private organ lessons with Charles Tournemire, whom he assisted at Basilique Ste-Clotilde, Paris until 1927.
In 1920 Duruflé entered the Conservatoire de Paris, eventually graduating with first prizes in organ with Eugène Gigout (1922), harmony with Jean Gallon (1924), fugue with Georges Caussade (1924), piano accompaniment with César Abel Estyle (1926) and composition with Paul Dukas (1928).
In 1927, Louis Vierne appointed him as his assistant at Notre-Dame, a role that Duruflé held even when he become titular organist of St-Étienne-du-Mont (in 1929), a position he held for the rest of his life.
In 1943 he became Professor of Harmony at the Conservatoire de Paris, where he worked until 1970; among his pupils were the revered organists Pierre Cochereau, Jean Guillou and Marie-Claire Alain.
I did not record this video at the Consolata Sanctuary organ, but at the Dominique Oberthür organ, located in the Cathedral of Auxerre (France) on the occasion of a concert of mine in that prestigious venue.
Here is the tech equipment I’ve used in order to capture this live recording:
DAT recorder Aiwa HD-s1
Microphones Sennheiser K3U + ME80
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Great Organ Dominique Oberthür (year 1986)
Stoplist
I - GRAND-CHOEUR
Chamades (basses) 16'
Chamades (dessus) 16'
Chamades (basses) 8
Chamades (dessus) 8'
Chamades 4'
Chamades 5 1/3'+2 2/3' II
II - GRAND-ORGUE
Bourdon 16'
Montre 8'
Bourdon conique 8'
Prestant 4'
Grosse tierce 3 1/5'
Doublette 2'
Cornet V
Grosse Fourniture III
Grosse Cymbale III
Fourniture III
Cymbale III
Bombarde 16'
Trompette 8'
Clairon 4'
III - POSITIF
Principal 8'
Bourdon 8'
Montre 4'
Flûte 4'
Nasard 2 2/3'
Quarte 2'
Tierce 1 3/5'
Piccolo 1'
Mixtur IV
Cromorne 8'
IV - RÉCIT (expressif / enclosed)
Dulciane 8'
Voix céleste 8'
Bourdon 8'
Flûte 4'
Principal 2'
Larigot 1 1/3'
Cornet III
Scharff III
Basson 16'
Trompette 8'
Voix humaine 8'
Clairon 4'
PÉDALE
Soubasse 32'
Soubasse 16'
Flûte 16'
Flûte 8'
Flûte 4'
Basson 32'
Bombarde 16'
Other details:
Manual compass: 51 notes (C-c4)
Pedal compass: 32 notes (C-g1)
Electronic combinator

[@stephan-i9g]

Definitely the best interpretation of Duruflé's Toccata that I have ever heard... and I've head it masterfully played by many great musicians!
The dynamic tension that you have managed to create is UNIQUE, moreover without ever giving up a perfect intelligibility of the parts.
Miraculous!

[@OrganoConsolata]

Many thanks for this lovely comment!
I am Italian and in my homeland it is very rare, let's say impossible, to have instruments of such quality at hand, so perfectly suited to this kind of repertoire, therefore, indeed, I must have been well inspired :-)