St Paul's Cathedral may seem an odd choice of venue for recording Durufle's organ music: there is that devastating echo and the organ has no pretensions to be anything other than English. But let's not forget that Hyperion have already produced a chain of successful recordings there and they have caught the detail and clarity without any loss of atmosphere.
Like his teacher, Paul Dukas, Durufle was fiercely self-critical. He seemed to spend more time revising his compositions than he did actually writing them. This accounts for a remarkably thin catalogue, and although there are only six organ works, this represents a substantial part of his total output. In these works' often pained, occasionally dramatic, but always distinctly personal expression, can be found Durufle's true musical soul: quite naturally since he was an active organist holding the post of organist at Paris's St Etienne-du-Mont for 45 years. In addition to the three well-known works, John Scott includes a Fugue based on the eight-note theme from the carillon at Soissons Cathedral (in honour of the piece's dedicatee, Canon Henri Doyen) and the short characteristic Prelude on the Epiphany introit Ecce advenit dominator Dominus written for a volume of Norbert Dufourcq's Orgue et Liturgie.
The recordings and performances are splendid: Scott's playing is technically immaculate and his interpretations are intense and moving. Any lingering doubts about clarity in such a reverberant building are instantly dispelled by impressively precise articulation in the Alain Prelude. Perhaps there are occasions when the absence of a Cavaille-Coll's fiery reeds is rather keenly felt; not least in the fff pedal entry of the ''Prelude'' from the Suite, but otherwise both organ and player seem perfectly suited to this music.'