Olivier / Vierne, Louis / Tournemire, Char Messiaen: French Organ Music – Sakari

   in Choir & Organ (May, 2014)
The Finnish organist Petur Sakari presents an attractive programme of 20th-century French classics, but inevitably he is up against formidable competition from the grands maitres. These are good if not exceptional performances. Rising to the grandeur of Tournemire’s ‘Victimae Paschali’ Improvisation and Dupre’s Prelude & Fugue in B major, he also negotiates well the turgid chromatic saturation of Vierne’s Clair de lune and the contrasting mercurial textures of Impromptu and Toccata. His approach to Durufle’s Suite, op.5 is restrained, bringing out the atmospheric character of the slower movements, though the final Toccata lacks full momentum, sagging a little in the middle. …