Page 11 - Alison Balsom Quiet City FULL BOOK

Alison Balsom: new five-album deal with Warner Classics (photo: Simon Fowler)

Other works will include a newly edited version of Bernstein’s Lonely Town (from his
1944 musical On the Town), and Ives’s 1908 work The Unanswered Question. In a

different tone to that haunting work, it will also include a newly commissioned large-
scale orchestral arrangement of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue (by arranger Simon

Wright), including a prominent solo trumpet line woven in with the solo piano line.

The last two tracks see Balsom swap her C trumpet for an old Bb copper belled

instrument, for the softer, more mellow tones Miles Davis created in Sketches of
Spain with Gil Evans in 1959, for a recording Rodrigo’s Concierto de Aranjuez with

the Britten Sinfonia, followed by an exploration of Davis and Evan’s arrangement of
Kurt Weill’s My Ship.

‘This album has been an utter joy to make’ said Balsom. ‘I loved every minute of the
sessions with the brilliant Britten Sinfonia, conductor Scott Stroman, oboist and cor

anglais player Nicholas Daniel and my great friend and collaborator pianist Tom
Poster. The concept of this project began decades ago, when I decided that

Copland’s Quiet City was a work that everyone needed to hear – especially so as
Copland reveals the scene so brilliantly via the solo trumpet and cor.

‘There is a true melancholy in this work that only a certain type of trumpet playing
can achieve, and across the collection on the album I’ve tried to show that through

the unique lens of the trumpet, the wonderful bridge and mutual respect between the
classical composers and arrangers, and the jazz greats can be seen. For many of

us, the sentiment behind Quiet City is pertinent at the moment, as we emerge from
the loneliness of the pandemic and into another chapter of darkness in today’ s

turbulent world.’

‘The fascinating meeting point and melting pot between classical and jazz is what

has been such an adventure to explore here, both from an historic and repertoire
point of view, and my own performance,’ added Balsom.

Reflecting on the continuation of the partnership, Alain Lanceron, President, Warner
Classics & Erato commented: ‘Alison is a true advocate for her instrument. In the

course of a relationship that now dates back 20 years, she has enriched Warner

Classics’ catalogue with recordings that cover an extraordinary range.