Lully: Te Deum

Of all the performances of the Te Deum conducted during Lully's lifetime, history retains only the last, which sealed the composer's death in 1686: it was while beating time that, carried away by his zeal, he pierced his foot with the end of his cane... Ten years earlier, Lully composed this considerable score, for the christening of his own son, thus establishing an "official" genre for a century. Also intended to celebrate the great events of the reign, the grand motet Exaudiat Te Dominus is a dazzling glorification of the King, whose arms God has come to bear. Stephane Fuget, with his ensemble Les epopees, brings to a close this collection devoted to Lully's sumptuous Grands Motets, accompanied by the Pages et Chantres of the Centre de musique baroque de Versailles: To the Glory of God and the King!