The repertoire on Caprice may border on “pops”, yet it provides a wide-ranging showcase for British trumpeter Alison Balsom’s extraordinary instrumental prowess. Listen to her seamless, flawlessly arched legato lines in Rachmaninov’s Vocalise, the Andante from Bach’s First Violin Concerto, or the Nocturne from Tomasi’s Trumpet Concerto and you wonder if she had traded in her brass and valves for a silken bow, or a tub of butter. She proves that Debussy’s Syrinx for Solo Flute can viable on trumpet, although Mozart’s second Queen of the Night aria from The Magic Flute is a fiercer, angrier piece of music than Balsom’s suave, scrupulously worked out phrasing indicates.
Similarly, for all the impressive control she brings to Falla’s Seven Popular Spanish Songs (in Luciano Berio’s ingenuous orchestration), I wish she’d dig into the idiom’s earthier tones and embellishments (she should lock herself up for a week with Miles Davis’ Sketches of Spain). In fact, in his excellent accompaniments Edward Gardiner takes stylistic matters more into account than does the star soloist. Yet when the music mainly is about technique and fluff, like Arban’s Variations on “Casta Diva” or Paganini’s 24th caprice, Balsom becomes the Joan Sutherland of the trumpet. At any rate, this release easily explains the enormous buzz and acclaim lavished on Balsom in her native country.
