Page 91 - Alison Balsom Quiet City FULL BOOK

throughout the piece feels right to me – it feels like the trumpet is the right solitary,
gorgeous, but lonely voice to ask those questions. But the string writing is just iconic.

It’s actually the earliest thing on the whole disc in terms of when it was written, in
1908, and it’s incredibly original and pioneering for the time, and even now it feels

incredibly contemporary.

‘Obviously there were lots of challenges in terms of how to physically place the

trumpet, where I should be recording from in order to create the effect that we
wanted; but the piece – it’s almost like a meditation, or a place where you go to take

yourself out of your mind and far beyond the daily trials of the world.’

For all those physical considerations, it must, I suggest, be an extraordinary work to

perform live. ‘You have many, many people in a space – and you can hear a pin
drop. That phrase is never more powerful than when you hear the beginning of this

piece, because everyone is completely engaged. It starts so quietly, and your first
thought is, “Has it started or is that my imagination?” And then it has started, and

you’re so intrigued. You never hear fidgeting, or coughing – you don’t hear anything
because you’re so aware of having been transported immediately to a new place.’