Page 31 - Alison Balsom Quiet City FULL BOOK

4. Henri Tomasi: Trumpet Concerto (1948)

“The concerto by Henri Tomasi is one of my favourites of the mid-20th
century. It’s very colourful, very quirky... it starts with a huge fanfare,
really very challenging technically. But musically it’s so gripping, and
immediately it backs off and does something a bit more subtle and
introverted.

“When I play this concerto... I really have to think differently about
vibrato. I think vibrato has to be something like seasoning, like salt and
pepper that you add or you take away, you mustn’t use it as a standard
tomato ketchup on everything. But Tomasi can really take a lot of vibrato
and expression, and variety in the sound.”