La tempête, Simon-Pierre Bestion – Scarlatti & Dvořák: Stabat Mater (2024) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

La tempête, Simon-Pierre Bestion – Scarlatti & Dvořák: Stabat Mater (2024)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:33:36 minutes | 1,65 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Alpha Classics

Simon-Pierre Bestion has chosen to mirror two Stabat Mater that are more than 150 years apart: “in these two works I can feel the same tonal language, the same expression of sorrow” says the founder of La Tempête… “I have decided to ‘augment’ Scarlatti’s orchestration and ‘diminish’ Dvořák’s, so they can meet on even ground. To the Scarlatti I have added string parts sometimes doubling the vocal lines, colla parte , as was often done at the period: this not only allows the sound to be amplified, but adds an extra timbre to the voice. For the Dvořák, I have transcribed the original piano part into its minimum orchestral dimension, that is, for strings. This creates a common sound world between the two works – I would even say they have the same kind of lyricism in common, with just the timbres of the piano, organ and theorbo standing out.”

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La tempête, Simon-Pierre Bestion – The Tempest: inspired by Shakespeare (2015) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

La tempête, Simon-Pierre Bestion – The Tempest: inspired by Shakespeare (2015)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:20:31 minutes | 1,52 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Alpha Classics

A profoundly modern dimension emerges from this confrontation between English works from the 17th century (Henry Purcell, Matthew Locke) and works from the 20th and 21st centuries (Philippe Hersant, Franck Martin, Thierry Pécou). Coming from highly different musical universes, each composition is, however, largely inspired by the founding themes of Shakespeare’s play, sometimes taking up excerpts from it.

The text is recited in English, or rather Shakespeare’s ‘Old English’, as are all the sung parts, in order to reproduce the strong, sweet accent of that tongue.

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La Tempête & Simon-Pierre Bestion – Bach minimaliste (2023) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

La Tempête & Simon-Pierre Bestion – Bach minimaliste (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:15:59 minutes | 1,38 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Alpha Classics

J. S. Bach’s Harpsichord Concerto in D minor is the centrepiece of this programme: ‘This music seems absolutely modern to me: a continuous, endlessly developing thread, giving it an almost hypnotic aspect… These adjectives also belong to the vocabulary of today’s music, whether it is “popular”, as in techno, or “art music”, as in the so-called repetitive or minimalist movement’, says Simon-Pierre Bestion. Two hundred and thirty years after Bach, Górecki wrote a harpsichord concerto in the same key, using it ‘as a very rhythmic and extremely stealthy instrument’. John Adams, a leading figure of the American minimalist movement, composed Shaker Loops in 1978: ‘This masterpiece takes on a special interest because we play on instruments with gut strings. That gives the music a very special texture.’ Bach’s Passacaglia (‘a single musical theme heard forty-one times’) and Jehan Alain’s Litanies complete this programme, which brings together the Bestion brothers, with Louis-Noël Bestion de Camboulas as soloist in the concertos.

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La Tempête and Simon-Pierre Bestion – Monteverdi: Vespro (2019) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

La Tempête and Simon-Pierre Bestion – Monteverdi: Vespro (2019)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 02:22:04 minutes | 2,64 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Alpha Classics

Do not adjust your set, there is no mistake: you’re not listening to a Marcel Perez record. This is indeed the Vespers of the Blessed Virgin by Monteverdi for the label Alpha. Simon- Pierre Bestion, faithful fixture of the Cris de Paris and Insula Orchestra, conducts his own ensemble, La Tempête. With its wild vocal polyphonics, it is rooted in the folk traditions of Sardinia and Corsica. These Vespers are simply stunning, and enriched by Gregorian faux-bourdons. As the instrumentation wasn’t always set down precisely, the orchestra is able to make use of uncommon timbres, while still respecting the Italian cosmopolitanism of the Venice of the day (a shofar, harps, trombones, chitarrones).

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La Tempête & Simon-Pierre Bestion – Larmes de Résurrection (Collection château de Versailles) (2018) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

La Tempête & Simon-Pierre Bestion – Larmes de Résurrection (Collection château de Versailles) (2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:17:16 minutes | 1,35 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Alpha Classics

In 1623, when the Thirty Years War was raging, Europe was torn apart by the confrontation between Protestant and Catholic peoples. Schütz and Schein, close friends with a deep-rooted Lutheran faith, were thoroughly in accordance with the spirit of their time when they wrote these works imbued with frugality, humility, even austerity. Yet these two great minds were still driven by a burning passion, paradoxically very attached to Italianate style, which is very evident here. With his ensemble La Tempête, Simon-Pierre Bestion has now become established as one of the most creative interpreters on today’s musical scene, revisiting the repertory, juxtaposing works in varying styles and from different periods, as he demonstrated in his first two recordings for Alpha (The Tempest – Diapason d’Or – and Azahar – Choc de Classica). At the head of an exceptional group of performers, equally at home in medieval and contemporary music, he presents here a ‘rewrite’ for a large and colourful orchestra, featuring a Lebanese singer specialising in Byzantine chant in the role of the Evangelist: a radical new take on the ardent mysticism buried in this music, bringing it unexpected vitality and warmth.

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La Tempête & Simon-Pierre Bestion – Azahar (2017) [Official Digital Download 24bit/88,2kHz]

La Tempête & Simon-Pierre Bestion – Azahar (2017)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/88,2 kHz | Time – 01:22:27 minutes | 1,37 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Alpha Classics

French vocal and instrumental ensemble La Tempête contrasts and interweaves the polyphony of Machaut with the poetry of the Spanish cantigas and the century of Stravinsky and Ohana on Azahar (“orange blossom” in Spanish). Ensemble founder and leader Simon-Pierre Bestion enjoys disorienting listeners by shifting between different historical periods. He says that Stravinsky wrote his Mass after discovering Machaut’s setting, while Ohana’s Cantigas de Santa Maria allude to Alfonso the Wise and to folk song.

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La Tempête, Simon-Pierre Bestion – Hypnos (2021) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

La Tempête, Simon-Pierre Bestion - Hypnos (2021) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz] Download

La Tempête, Simon-Pierre Bestion – Hypnos (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:16:34 minutes | 1,33 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © Alpha Classics

Hypnos, God of Sleep… Simon-Pierre Bestion’s recordings are often inspired by his desire to recreate a ritual. His aim here was to recreate a Requiem service, ‘the ceremony that accompanies the passage of a human being into the hereafter, while supporting the feelings of all who witness it. Making use of all the freedom that this act of re-creation afforded me, I constructed this programme without boundaries between repertories or different musical aesthetics – from the Middle Ages through the Renaissance to the twentieth century – selecting the works for their captivating musical material, their hypnotic and meditative dimension’. Intonations from Byzantine chant sit alongside guttural voices in Giacinto Scelsi and the English vocal style of John Tavener; Franco-Flemish Renaissance polyphony encounters the influences of eastern or western spiritual traditions present in the contemporary works.
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Vincent Dumestre, Le Poème Harmonique, Chœur de la Compagne La Tempête, Simon-Pierre Bestion – Les Noces Royales de Louis XIV (2022) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Vincent Dumestre, Le Poème Harmonique, Chœur de la Compagne La Tempête, Simon-Pierre Bestion – Les Noces Royales de Louis XIV (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:05:18 minutes | 1,12 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Château de Versailles Spectacles

The wedding of Louis XIV with the Infanta of Spain, on 9 June 1660, was an exceptional event, sealing the peace between two monarchies that had been opposed for centuries. The 21-year-old King set off on a journey lasting thirteen months to cross and discover his kingdom: 15,000 people and 8,000 horses, 3,200 km in 95 stages, culminating in a wedding in Saint-Jean-de-Luz! The greatest festivities took place during the wedding ceremony, then on the journey of their Majesties, for their solemn entry into Paris and finally for the opera given in the Louvre in honour of the bride and groom! The finest composers contributed to the celebrations: the King’s trumpets opened the concert, while the church galleries hosted Du Mont’s symphony, organ and motets; finally, the most beautiful excerpts from Cavalli’s Xerxes and Lully’s accompanying ballets celebrated the Royal Wedding of Louis XIV through opera. Vincent Dumestre brings to life the musical splendours of the wedding of the century!

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