Having inherited the Habsburg, Burgundian and Spanish crowns, Charles V (1500-1558) became of the most powerful and successful rulers in history. As Holy Roman Emperor from 1519 and King of Spain from 1516, he resisted the Ottomans, campaigned from Italy to the New World and fought for Catholic supremacy in Europe against the Protestant Reformation. As afficionados of Verdi’s Don Carlos will remember, he abdicated in 1556, retiring to a monastery and dividing his considerable domains between his brother Ferdinand and his son Philip II.

Legend has it that Charles organised a rehearsal for his own funeral, even lying down in his coffin to ensure verisimilitude. In this fascinating album, Simon-Pierre Bestion and his early music ensemble La Tempête imagine the kind of music that might have been heard around that event, much of it influenced by the musicians who had poured into Spain from Flanders during the period. Following the pattern of the traditional Requiem mass, Bestion calls the resulting spicy melange a “Bomba flamenco”, or Flemish bomb. Purists might clutch their pearls, but this heady brew is realised with enormous emotional elan.