World-famous as the theme song for Eurovision, the introductory fanfare to Charpentier’s Te Deum is the tree that hides the forest. In this case, an exuberant but delicate work, where spirituality and grace blend. The first of the great French motets to regain the favour of musicologists and the public in the twentieth century, it revealed, even before the revolution of period instru-ments, the beauty of this musical literature, which was highly prized for praising God at the time of Louis XIV – the first autograph score dates from the early 1690s, but the exact circumstances in which the piece was composed remain obscure. With this rediscovery, Charpentier also became the best known of the French Baroque musi-cians – Lully and Rameau would not find their rightful place until some years later. A sumptuous testimony to a time that knew the rigours of war as much as the pomp of triumphs, it is naturally accompanied by the more serious solemnities of Charpentier’s other pages presented here, and the martial but irresistibly colourful accents of Philidor.