Scott Cantrell

France has a rich five-century legacy of organs, organists and organ music. Philippe Lefebvre, one of three current organists of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, sampled four-plus centuries' worth of repertory in a recital Tuesday evening at the Episcopal Church of the Incarnation.

French organ music is almost inseparable from the distinctive sonorities of French organs. The Incarnation instrument, a 1994 Noack rebuild of a 1961 Aeolian-Skinner, probably comes closer than any other in the area to French organ sounds of the last century and a half. The church's nave also provides the reverberant warmth and "ring" essential to the music's effect.

Mr. Lefebvre was at his best in three movements from Louis Vierne's Second Symphony. He perfectly balanced grandeur and drama in the opening Allegro and Choral, and the elfin Scherzo glittered. The Prelude from Maurice Durufle's Suite for organ was similarly effective in its accumulation and relaxation of intensity.

César Franck's Third Choral displayed Mr. Lefebvre's virtuosity, but also a natural lyricism in the central section.

Marcel Dupré's Cortège et litanie would have been better without out-of-tune chimes, some nasty solo trumpet stops and a loud horizontal tuba stop at the rear of the nave.

That tuba stop, which needs to be used cautiously, also made vulgar noises at the end of Jehan Alain's Litanies and Mr. Lefebvre's 30-minute improvisation on two themes supplied by local organist George Baker.

Litanies is meant to be obsessive, but it does have punctuations which Mr. Lefebvre ignored in a headlong rush. He also rushed rhythms in the brassy François Couperin "Offertoire sur les grands jeux."

The themes for the improvisation were inspired by music of the late Olivier Messiaen, whose centenary falls this year.

From gentle rustle of strings

to rich purr of foundations, from piquant combinations to full-throated roar and rumble, Mr. Lefebvre did clever things: a fugal passage and a flashy toccata, deliciously complex harmonies and suggestions of bird songs (a Messiaen signature).

But it would have been better edited down to maybe 20 minutes.

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