Emmanuelle Bertrand

Bloch - Casals - Rachmaninov - Offenbach - Schumann - Fauré - Dvorak - Wagner - Verdi - Tchaikovsky

Meditations

Emmanuelle Bertrand / Eric-Maria Couturier / Emmanuel Gaugué / Xavier Phillips / Raphaël Pidoux / Roland Pidoux / Nadine Pierre / François Salque, cello

The cello octet is a formation that is heard only rarely. Yet it harks back to a tradition which was highly esteemed until the early eighteenth century, the practice of forming ensembles of instruments of the same family. Recorder quartets, lute trios and ensembles of hunting horns were for centuries the delight of amateur musicians, to whom they offered an ideal opportunity to express themselves and exchange with each other. 

It was the requirements of the opera house that gave birth to our modern orchestra. Learned counterpoint and rich ornamentation disappeared, giving way to a much more rigid structure which, by separating melody and harmony, fixed each instrument in a clearly determined role. This was how the cello was promoted to the rank of ‘basse de violon’ in France, or ‘bass violin’ as it was known in Purcell’s England. However, the cello also had to fight fierce battles with the champions of the viola da gamba, who could see only the imperfections of this newcomer. Is it a coincidence that Bach, in his final version of the St John Passion (1749), still assigns the finest solos to the viola da gamba? To be sure, some composers did quickly recognise the cello’s sonic qualities, giving it solo parts in that warm register close to the ‘vox humana’. In the meantime, the violin had amply established its supremacy as a melodic and virtuosic instrument. 

There are very few original works for cello ensemble, and so a repertoire had to be created for the Octet. It was therefore necessary to select and transcribe works highlighting the wide range and expressive possibilities of the instrument. 

Though purists may sneer, transcription has always been an essential element in music. The transcription of polyphonic songs gave birth to instrumental music. It was also by means of transcription that Bach made the French and Italian styles his own. And, in the nineteenth century, it played an essential role in the diffusion of music, as witness the large corpus of transcriptions by Liszt. 

It is a tricky exercise, comparable to the art of the translator. One must be capable at all times of remaining in the background and showing off the composer’s thoughts to best advantage. Transcription can even uncover certain aspects of the work: the Schumann pieces recorded here reveal a harmonic richness that is less apparent in the original version.