Page 60 - Alison Balsom Quiet City FULL BOOK

Photo: Hugh Carswell.

Can you tell us about what to expect from the new arrangements?

With Quiet City, this is not an arrangement; it’s an original work. I toyed

with the idea of trying to steal more of the cor anglais part for the
trumpet because it was originally written for quite different forces. It

was written for eight instruments, and it was much more of a chamber

piece where the trumpet did have a lot more to do. I was trying to
steal some of that stuff back, but I wasn’t allowed. The Copland estate

was having none of it! But I did try. I thought it would be really

interesting as there are so many great recordings of the piece, so I

wanted to try something different if we could musically justify it. But it’s
as great as it is with the strings and the cor anglais, and I was so

lucky to play with Nick Daniel, one of the world’s greatest cor anglais

players, so that was very inspiring to stand next to him and feel his

energy and musical ideas.

I don’t think of the Bernstein as an arrangement, really. It has a

hauntingly beautiful melody with a little trumpet solo at the beginning,