On today’s date in 1935, at the Church of Saint François-Xavier in Paris, organist Geneviève de la Salle gave the first complete performance of the three-movement Suite, Op. 5, by the French composer, teacher, and virtuoso organist Maurice Duruflé.

If you sing in a choir or are a fan of choral classics, you might be familiar with Duruflé’s serene and tranquil “Requiem,” Op. 9, which premiered some 12 years later.

Now, if Duruflé’s Op. 5 premiered in 1935, and his Op. 9 in 1947, you might reasonably conclude the composer was a slow worker, which he was. He was also a very meticulous and self-critical artist -- a perfectionist whose catalog of works is rather small, but exquisitely crafted. In all, Duruflé’s output comprises less than 15 published works, of which seven are for organ. The three movements of his Suite, Op. 5 consist of a brooding Prélude, a Sicilienne that evokes the harmonies and inflections of Ravel, and a brilliant, concluding Toccata.

Duruflé’s music is firmly embedded in the French tradition of organ composers like César Franck and Louis Vierne, and orchestral composers like Debussy, Ravel, and Duruflé’s own composition teacher, Paul Dukas. The great French organist Marie-Claire Alain, when asked to describe Duruflé’s music, replied "it is a perfectly honest art. . . . He was not an innovator but a traditionalist … Duruflé evolved and amplified the old traditions, making them his own."