Bach; Works For a Trumpet
Alison Balsom

Review by: Robert Zierolf

I'd heard that British trumpeter Alison Balsom was getting rave reviews in Europe, so I was eager to hear her CD titled J.S. Bach: Chamber Music for Trumpet. She is indeed superb, just a few years past student days at the Guildhall School and Paris Conservatoire, but the most exciting feature of her playing is that I can hear room for growth even from the remarkable level she's already achieved.

I assume the scholarship embraced via current Ph.D. study at the Royal Scottish Academy and St. Andrews University will enhance her performance, practice and arranging techniques already apparent on this disc. Bach wrote little for trumpet, mostly in orchestrations for his larger works, so Balsom chose judiciously from his concertos (themselves transcriptions by Bach of scores by Vivaldi and other contemporaries) and other compositions that lend themselves to reinvention for trumpet and ensemble of four accompanists. Her discography is growing rapidly, and this CD is a good place to start if you're not already familiar with her work.

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Robert Zierolf is Professor of Music Theory and History and Division head of Composition, Musicology, and Theory at the College-Conservatory of Music, University of Cincinnati. He is also a freelance writer on classical music.