Page 220 - Alison Balsom Quiet City FULL BOOK

voice (think of Handel and Bach). Alison Balsom has excelled there since her
sensational debut in 2000. His concerts put the public on their knees (ourselves in
2017). His recordings are all references. The English trumpeter is even more musician
than that and with this sumptuous recording she opens another world, another galaxy
to her instrument. Paying an emotional tribute to jazz trumpeters she plays pieces
arranged for the immense Miles Davis. In this CD she simply dares to look for another
sound world for the trumpet. A world of half-tones, mists, chiaroscuro or night. She
dares low notes of pure poetry and phrasings of a cameo delicacy. This play with light is
fascinating and the program that begins with the eponymous piece Quiet
City by Copland has a real artistic coherence while the elements can seem disparate. It
is the tone, the poetry that make the evidence of the program listening. She surrounds
herself with musicians as gifted as she is with an elite orchestra: the Britten
Sinfonia subtly conducted by Scott Stroman. And the arrangements and transcriptions
are diabolically made and allow us to rediscover with eloquent subtlety the works so
well known as Rhapsody in Blue, the Concerto Aranjuez or My Ship by Kurt Weil. At the
centre of Charles Ives' recital the Unanswered Question, another original work for the
trumpet, is perhaps the jewel in terms of incredible sounds, minute nuances and
phrasings of pure poetry.

The virtuosity is quite different but no less spectacular: who would have imagined
possible such a sensual glissando to open the Rhapsody in Blue? Who thought possible
volutes pianissimo on the whole range? Who imagined such a long breath? Who dared
to dream of this fragility that becomes strength? This is a goldsmith's work with genius
accomplices.

This CD is absolutelyessential for any music lover, the one who loves it in its varied
lights!

Such a trumpet play is very, very high class; it grew the instrument!

Hubert Stoecklin

QUIET CITY: ALISON BALSOM, TRUMPET. BRITTEN SINFONIA. SCOTT STROMAN:
Direction.

7 tracks. 54'06''. Aaron Copland (1900–1990): Quiet City; Leonard Bernstein (1918-
1990): Lonely Town: Pas de deux (arr. Alison Bolsom); George Gershwin (1898-1937):
Rhapsody in Blue (arr. Simon Wright); Charles Ives (1874–1954): The Unanswered
Question; Joachim Rodrigo (1901-1999) : Concierto de Aranjuez : Adagio ( arr. By Gil
Evans for Miles Davis); Kurt Weil (1900-1950) : My Ship ( arr. By Gil Evans for Miles
Davis).