This debut disc from French artistic collective La Tempête and their
director Simon-Pierre Bestion is, at first glance, frankly bizarre.
Period instrumental and choral works by Locke and Purcell sit alongside
music by Frank Martin and living French composer Thierry Pécou.
Divided into a sequence of quasi-dramatic ‘acts’, the music is designed to capture the ‘plural spirit’ of Shakespeare’s The Tempest,
mirroring the play’s narrative ‘without restricting itself to works
actually written for the play’. It’s hard to shake the impression that
this brilliant group of young musicians just wanted an excuse to perform
some of their favourite pieces, but they make such a stylish job of it
that it’s easy to get swept up in their wide-ranging enthusiasms.
Most exciting are instrumental interludes by Matthew Locke, whose The Tempest
opens the disc, and (according to some rather ponderous booklet-notes)
was the inspiration for the project. Bass-anchored and
percussion-driven, the playing has a real rhythmic kick to it, insisting
upon the dances that are then sublimated and dissolved in song and
text-settings of Martin and Pécou.
Choral blend and enunciation are immaculate, at their very best in Martin’s Songs of Ariel – lively with inventive textural gestures, and expressively every bit the equal of Vaughan Williams’s better-known Three Shakespeare Songs. Also interesting is Philippe Hersant’s extended Falling Star – the contemporary choral cousin of Purcell’s verse anthems, many of which also feature here. It’s particularly good to see Let mine eyes run down with tears among the more familiar numbers – a neglected gem of rare intensity, performed here with tremendous poise.
La Tempête’s avowed aim here was to ‘disturb the tranquillity’ of
their listeners. While I can’t confess to any lasting disturbance of
spirit, these young French mavericks certainly inspired plenty of
excitement and no little anticipation with their provocative debut. (Gramophone)
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