Emmanuelle Bertrand
is a radiant, generous personality and a key figure in the European cello scene who in March 2022 was chosen as "Instrumental Soloist of the Year" at the Victoires de la Musique awards (along with fellow cellist Sol Gabetta).

She trained at the Conservatoires Nationaux Supérieurs de Musique et de Danse in Lyon and Paris under Jean Deplace and Philippe Muller, and has won numerous awards and international competitions. She was chosen as "artist of the year" by the Diapason magazine and France Musique listeners in 2011.

Emmanuelle Bertrand came to the attention of the general public when she received her first Victoires de la Musique award in 2002. 

At the age of 25, she met the composer Henri Dutilleux, who spoke of her as a "true revelation". Since then, she has been the dedicatee of works by Nicolas Bacri, Édith Canat de Chizy, Pascal Amoyel, Bernard Cavanna, David Lampel, Thierry Escaich and Benoît Menut. She also gave the world premiere of Chanson pour Pierre Boulez by Luciano Berio. 

It was also during this period that she formed a duo with the pianist Pascal Amoyel, her partner in private life as well as on stage, with whom she champions both forgotten works and standard repertoire. During the 2021/22 season, a CD devoted to Brahms' sonatas and lieder (harmonia mundi – Choc de Classica) was released to celebrate the 20th anniversary of this duo.

She performs regularly as a soloist, notably with the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre Métropolitain (Montreal, Canada), the National Orchestra of Ukraine, the Moscow State Symphony Orchestra, the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, the Busan Symphony Orchestra (South Korea), the Musica Vitae chamber orchestra of Sweden, the Quebec Symphony Orchestra, the RTV Slovenia Symphony Orchestra, the Wuhan Symphony Orchestra (China), the National Orchestras of Lille, Ile de France, Lorraine, the Philharmonic Orchestras of Strasbourg and Monte Carlo.

She has been artistic director of the Beauvais International Cello Festival since 2012, and professor of chamber music at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris since 2008. In 2022, she became the first woman to be appointed professor of cello in the history of this institution, founded in 1795.

Ensemble arabesques
The Ensemble arabesques, which was founded in 2011 in connection with the German-French culture festival arabesques in Hamburg, now performs throughout the year both in Germany and abroad. Noted professors and orchestral solo players from all over Germany play together in a variety of instrumental combinations.

The ensemble focuses on unusual projects ranging from Baroque to contemporary. The ensemble's work particularly features unfamiliar composers and works that have fallen into oblivion. The German public-service broadcaster Deutschlandfunk Kultur has supported and acknowledged this commitment from the start.

The ensemble's first CD was issued in 2014 in collaboration with the Marseille ensemble Musicatreize: Trois contes de l’honorable fleur by Maurice Ohana. This production was nominated by the ICMA in the category "Opera". It was also recommended by the French public radio channel France Musique and the Académie Charles Cros. Since 2012, there has been a further partnership with the Institut Français des Instruments à vent in Marseille.

In 2017, the internationally acclaimed recording Gustav Holst Kammermusik, which includes some little-known works by the English composer, was issued on the FARAO classics label. Two further albums are dedicated to Francis Poulenc and Jacques Ibert.

At the festival Quinzaine Franco-Allemande d’Occitanie in 2018, the Ensemble arabesques gave the opening concert in the presence of the mayors of Hamburg and Toulouse. In 2019, the ensemble made its debut in the Recital Hall of the Elbphilharmonie, and in 2022 in the Grand Hall.

The present recording was made on the occasion of the concert in 2021 marking the tenth anniversary of the arabesques festival. The friendship and artistic collaboration with the internationally renowned French cellist Emmanuelle Bertrand, who has been awarded the Interpretation Prize of the Académie des Beaux-Arts, has existed equally as long.