Various Composers - Seraph (Alison Balsom)

Information

• James MacMillan - Seraph for trumpet & string orchestra
• Toru Takemitsu - Paths for solo trumpet
• Alexander Arutiunian - Trumpet Concerto in A flat
• Nobody knows (Negro spiritual, arr. Tom Poster & Alison Balsom)
• Bernd Alois Zimmermann - Trumpet Concerto 'Nobody knows de trouble I see'

Alison Balsom, trumpet

Scottish Ensemble

BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra

Lawrence Renes, conductor

Date: 2012

Label: EMI / Warner Classics

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Review

After the epic confrontation of James MacMillan’s earlier concerto, its successor deftly combines trumpet and strings in music that ranges from the incisiveness of its first movement, via the ‘seraphic’ plaintiveness of its lightly textured Adagio to the robust interplay of the finale. Balsom takes its not inconsiderable demands in her stride, with the Scottish Ensemble unstinting in its support.

Coming after the pensive Lutosławski tribute that is Toru Takamitsu’s Paths, Alexander Arutiunian’s Trumpet Concerto remains an effective accommodation of Stalinist dictates – nimbly alternating between rhetoric and energy with an appealing melodiousness redolent of Glière. Balsom projects it with due vitality, though Bibi Black finds a degree more spontaneity and expressive poise. Bernd Alois Zimmermann’s is arguably the finest of all latter-day concertos: its sequence of variations on the spiritual Nobody knows de trouble I see (an evocative arrangement by Balsom and Tom Poster prefaces this account) moving from real ominousness, through glancing irony and a bracing workout for soloist and orchestra, to fateful uncertainty. Reinhold Friedrich evinces greater command in those central sections, their bluesy overtones a little cautious as rendered by the BBC Scottish Symphony, yet Balsom’s heartfelt eloquence elsewhere cannot be gainsaid.

The sound in all three locations is clear and transparent without lacking impact, and the notes are succinctly informative. A pity that another concerto could have been included though, if Balsom is planning a follow-up disc (how about the Maxwell Davies, Panufnik and Weinberg concertos?), so much the better.

— Richard Whitehouse

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Alison Balsom (born 7 October 1978) is an English trumpet soloist. Educated at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, and the Conservatoire de Paris, she has performed internationally with leading orchestras and conductors. A dedicated recording artist with EMI Classics (now Warner Classics), Balsom has received numerous honors, including an OBE and major international awards. She has premiered several contemporary trumpet concertos and served as Artistic Director of the Cheltenham Music Festival. She announced her retirement from concert performance in 2025.

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