MUSIC REVIEW : Paul Lee Explores Works of Durufle

The compositional output of Maurice Durufle (1902-1988) may be small, but it is indeed choice. Sunday night at Wilshire United Methodist Church, organist Paul Lee, violist Susan Crawford, flutist Keri Hofland and Musica Sacra of Los Angeles explored works of significance in the composer’s canon beyond his celebrated Requiem.

Playing the restored, now totally responsive Harris organ, Lee presented Durufle’s complete works for the instrument. Sixty years separate the Scherzo, Opus 2 (1924), from “Fugue sur le carillon des heures de la cathedrale de Soissons,” during which Durufle never forsook the great French tradition of organ-writing.

In his big pieces--Prelude, Adagio and Choral Variations on “Veni Creator,” the Prelude et Fugue sur le nom de A.L.A.I.N. and the Suite, Opus 5--echoes of the chromaticism of Franck, the patrician lyricism of Faure and the grandiloquent pyrotechnic rhetoric of Vierne and Widor appear, yet the language ultimately remains Durufle’s own.

Lee met every demand of this virtuoso undertaking with bravura to spare, his registrations creating ravishing color contrasts in the many powerfully lyric passages. One disappointment: the program notes omitted the Harris organ’s specifications.

Four Motets for a cappella choir (1960), Palestrina-like in melody, form and rhythm, fully post-Impressionist in harmony, found perfect champions in Musica Sacra’s 12 singers.

Hofland, Crawford and Lee did loving justice to Prelude, Recitatif and Variations for flute, viola and piano (1928). Billed as receiving its West Coast premiere (!), this gem is a real sleeper, deserving wide recognition, immediately.