EMMANUELLE BERTRAND cello
Accustomed to international stages, Emmanuelle Bertrand is a key figure of the French cello. Chosen Artist of the Year 2011 by the Diapason magazine and listeners of France Musique, she was revealed by a «Victoire de la Musique» (French Grammys) in 2002. Henri Dutilleux said of her: Her interpretation immediately overjoyed me by the transparency of the sonority, the rythm exactness, the technical perfection, the brio of her play. I don t hesitate to say that for me, it is a genuine discovery. An avid chamber musician, her recordings for Harmonia Mundi, alone or in duo with pianist Pascal Amoyel, were all acclaimed by the national and international press. Bertrand is nothing if not a gutsy player. If she is as good live as she sounds here, and if she is as full of insight in the rest of her repertoire, I would certainly travel a distance to hear her. David Fanning, Gramophone Magazine Bertrand s tone is able to balance the most explosive piano passages with non sense of strain, and in the Finale alla saltarella the spot on ensemble playing is extremely exciting. Gramophone, The Classical Music Magazine Rich pickings! Bertrand and Amoyel complement each other superbly. BBC Music Magazine [ ] but the real excitement here is the playing of Bertrand and Amoyel -the one lush and full-voiced, the other forceful but just restrained enough to offer a textural counterpoint. Together they make eloquent magic. San Francisco Chronicle Emmanuelle Bertrand and pianist Pascal Amoyel have an exquisitely sensitive partnership, at its best in passages of lingering lyricism. Helen Wallace, BBC Music Magazine Superbly committed playing. BBC Music Magazine SOME EVENTS CD Camille Saint-Saëns 1st Concerto for cello and orchestra with the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra conducted by James Gaffigan 2nd Sonata and 3rd Sonata (previously unreleased) for cello and piano with pianist Pascal Amoyel Harmonia Mundi - Coming in February 2017 Concerts Tours in Greece, Russia, Canada, Italy and Ireland and recording of works by La Tombelle for the Palazzetto BruZane (Venice). Residency Emmanuelle Bertrand is from now on sponsor of the Estival de la Bâtie in Loire alongside Pascal Amoyel. Festival Artistic Director of the cello festival of Beauvais whose 25th anniversary will be celebrated in 2017.
PROGRAMME SUGGESTIONS SOLO THE CELLO IS SPEAKING Bach Suite in D minor, BWV 1008 Henze Serenade Amoyel Itinérance Cassodó Suite Dutilleux Trois Strophes sur le nom de SACHER Detailed programmes available upon request ETERNAL RUSSIA FROM SAINT-PETERSBOURG TO MOSCOW duo with pianist Pascal Amoyel Works by Borodine, Kabalevski, Rachmaninov, Shostakovich L INVITATION AU VOYAGE duo with pianist Pascal Amoyel Works by Fauré, Duparc, Lalo, Saint-Saëns WITH SYMPHONIC ORCHESTRA Selection from a wide repertoire available on request Schumann Cello Concerto, op.129 Bloch, Schelomo: Hebraic Rhapsody for cello and orchestra Dutilleux Tout un monde lointain WITH STRING ORCHESTRA THE CELLO SOUL with the Ensemble Sylf (Symphonie Loire Forez) concertante works by Dvorak, Bruch, Kreisler, Popper Photo François Séchet DUO CELLO & PIANO
DISCOGRAPHY LATEST RELEASES DUTILLEUX, HENZE, CRUMB, LIGETTI, BACRI, BRITTEN, CASSADÓ, AMOYEL, KODÁLY 20th Century Music for solo cello Harmonia Mundi, Sept. 2016 Through these selected masterpieces of the repertoire for solo cello, Emmanuelle Bertrand invites us on a journey to the heart of languages of popular inspiration. When music takes over the idioms characteristic of each culture, pushing back the limits of instrumental technique, reshaping and dismantling the rules the better to express a specific identity, then the cello truly «speaks» and takes us beyond frontiers, where the souls of a people take root. HENRI DUTILLEUX & CLAUDE DEBUSSY Tout un monde lointain DMITRI SHOSTAKOVICH Cello Concerto n 1 - Sonata for cello and piano op. 40 ALKAN, SAINT-SAËNS, STRAUSS, GRIEG, LISZT Romantic Cello Harmonia Mundi, Nov. 2015 Luzerner Sinfonieorchester, dir. James Gaffigan Harmonia Mundi, 2013 BBC National Orchestra of Wales, dir. Pascal Rophé Harmonia Mundi, 2011 On the occasion of the centenary of Henri Dutilleux, Emmanuelle Bertrand honors one of her greatest masters by recording the two masterpieces that he devoted to the cello. The Sonata by Debussy, created a few months before the birth of Dutilleux, resonates as the source of a renewed language over the twentieth century. A sound and poetic journey that describes a distant world Tout un monde lointain Here are two masterpieces for cello by Shostakovich, written 25 years apart. The insolent Sonata op.40 of 1934 contemporary with Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District, the opera soon to plunge its composer into disgrace with Stalin was answered in 1959 by the bitter selfquestioning of an artist who seemed to have sunk into depression. This Cello Concerto ends with a wicked caricature of true joy, adding the final touch to the extreme polymorphism of a traumatised humorist who had long since learned not to laugh The Initiales series is an invitation to discover the artists of harmonia mundi. In the fifteen years since she began her recording career with a programme of contemporary music, Emmanuelle Bertrand has added to her repertoire the finest Romantic sonatas for cello and piano, performed with her long-standing duo partner Pascal Amoyel. Their joint explorations are highlighted in this double album featuring works by Alkan, SaintSaëns, Grieg, and Strauss.
Vanessa Cicero +32 (0)2 880 50 95 vanessa@arts-scene.be www.arts-scene.be Photos de Niko Rodamel