Ibert, Hartmann & Dvorák: Chamber Music – Ensemble Arabesques

“The serenade: an evening song at someone’s door”, says a dictionary from the 17th century. The ensuing centuries have not changed this definition at all, as anyone knows who has heard Don Giovanni singing for Donna Elvira, Count Almaviva for Rosina or the Meistersinger Beckmesser for Eva Pogner. The Ensemble Arabesques is now bringing together Antonín Dvořák’s Serenade for Winds, Op. 44, one of the most famous pieces in the genre, with a rarity that is well worth being played and heard, the wind serenade by Danish composer Emil Hartmann, and an extremely diverting concerto featuring (serenade-like) depictions of nature, that for cello and winds by Jacques Ibert. 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.