I can't do better than quote the testimony of Henri Dutilleux himself, praising 'the transparency of Emmanuelle Bertrand's sound, her rhythmic strictness, her technical perfection, the brio of her playing'. All of these qualities are displayed in abundance on this disc, every note not only in place but invested with profound feeling...A strong candidate for my Disc of 2015.

Dutilleux was Bertrand's mentor, yet her fierce independence shines through ...Dutilleux's concerto was his response to the fleeting poetic images of Charles Baudelaire, and Bertrand's playing remains infused with an idea of his 'tout un monde lontain' - 'a whole distant world'...Bertrand achieves a giddying sense of balanced perspective against those delicately spiced flavours served up by James Gaffigan's Luzerner Sinfonieorchester/

James Gaffigan and the Lucerne orchestra tread that tricky line in Dutilleux between sensuous imagery and intense technical refinement, while Emmanuelle Bertrand makes stunning sounds on her cello – now breathy and exquisite, now deep and spicy.

Gaffigan and the Lucerne orchestra tread that fine Dutilleux line between sensuality and refinement, and Emmanuelle Bertrand makes stunning sounds on her cello — now breathy, now deep and spicy. Also on the disc is a gleaming performance of Debussy’s Cello Sonata.

Bertrand delivers some extraordinarily fine playing, capturing so many details and expressive moments, with moments of fine passion as well as virtuosic skill. ..Both the orchestra under James Gaffigan and Bertrand are spot on, demonstrating fine accuracy…These are very fine performances indeed. Given that the comparative recording of the concerto on my shelves is by Rostropovich himself, this is no mean accolade.

The contemplation is often spellbinding and evocative, which Emmanuelle Bertrand and James Gaffigan conjure magically, and the recording misses no detail … completed by Debussy’s wonderful Cello Sonata (with pianist Pascal Amoyel), an enjoyably capricious account