The Baroque composers on this disc were as comfortable with the idea of transcription as is trumpeter Alison Balsom, whose previous releases include transcriptions for trumpet of the music of Bach, Rachmaninov, Debussy, Paganini and Mozart. And they would have been positively delighted with Balsom’s suave, characterful performances. Here she tackles some pretty standard fare, including Marcello’s ubiquitous Oboe Concerto in C minor, the Cimarosa/Arthur Benjamin Concerto for Oboe and Strings (no actual transcribing required here), and Vivaldi’s Violin Concerto in A minor, RV356, which is also popular with the classical guitar set.

But there’s nothing standard about the playing, either from Balsom or the Scottish Ensemble, which she also directs. The opening A minor Vivaldi is crisply and stylishly despatched, the détaché bowing of the vibrato-less strings nicely offsetting Balsom’s graceful gruppetti and legato phrasing – the latter serving Balsom particularly well in the Adagio of the Marcello. Wistfulness and exuberance combined come to the fore in the Cimarosa, while Balsom’s clear, focused tone irradiates Albinoni’s less exciting Oboe Concerto in B flat with a warmth and intensity that is carried over into the penultimate work on the disc, Tartini’s D major Trumpet Concerto, an arrangement by John Wallace (a former teacher of Balsom’s) and Simon Wright of one of the composer’s violin concertos. To be sure, one occasionally misses the dynamic and tonal shading available to the violinist in the relevant concertos but there is much to compensate here, such is the nature of Balsom’s artistry.