Vierne's organ symphonies, the Third in particular, have fared singularly well on CD. If you already have Jeremy Filsell, David Sanger or Olivier Latry then rest assured Murray eclipses none of these. That said, this coupling, setting the dark, forbidding Third against the exuberant, optimistic First, is attractive and Murray is certainly in the forefront of the Vierne interpreters of our day. He has remarkable technical command, executing the detail of these demanding scores with total security. He is an intuitive organist, knowing precisely when to use which stops (not least the thrilling Rouen en chamades) and playing this dense acoustic to full effect-hence a dangerously slow but spine-tinglingly exciting Final to the Third. Most of all he is an inveterate Francophile, speaking Vierne's Parisian accents with authority. However, this is essentially a New World approach to French culture, sharing an intense enthusiasm with those who will likely find in this music something of the exotic: so different from Latry who plays with all the self-assurance of one steeped in centuries of tradition and presupposes unquestionably a listener entirely au fait with the musical language. Hence Murray's deliberately-enunciated First Symphony Fugue and the Intermezzo (from the Third Symphony) virtually spoon-fed to prevent any risk of pampered ears choking on such sophisticated chromatic subtleties. None the less, such an ultra-communicative approach yields immensely satisfying results at every level.
What for me is the only real drawback with this recording will be for others, I'm quite sure, its most attractive quality. The combination of a sizzling instrument, a steamy acoustic and Telarc's opulent recording has the effect of a kind of aural Turkish Bath-after a while any therapeutic benefits are stifled by the sheer suffocating weight of sound.'