Alison Balsom: Paris

Record and Artist Details

Composer or Director: Maurice Ravel, Astor Piazzolla, Erik Satie, Joseph Kosma, Olivier Messiaen, Michel Legrand

Genre:

Orchestral

Label: Warner Classics

Media Format: CD or Download

Media Runtime: 52

Mastering:

DDD

Catalogue Number: 2564 63278-9

463 2789. Alison Balsom: Paris

Tracks:

Composition Artist Credit
(3) Gymnopédies, Movement: Lent et triste Erik Satie, Composer
Alison Balsom, Trumpet
Erik Satie, Composer
Guy Barker, Conductor
The Guy Barker Orchestra
Cafe 1930 Astor Piazzolla, Composer
Alison Balsom, Trumpet
Astor Piazzolla, Composer
Milos Karadaglic, Guitar
Oblivion Astor Piazzolla, Composer
Alison Balsom, Trumpet
Astor Piazzolla, Composer
Guy Barker, Conductor
The Guy Barker Orchestra
(La) valse des lilas Michel Legrand, Composer
Alison Balsom, Trumpet
Guy Barker, Conductor
Michel Legrand, Composer
The Guy Barker Orchestra
(20) Regards sur l'enfant Jésus, Movement: Le baiser de l'Enfant-Jésus Olivier Messiaen, Composer
Alison Balsom, Trumpet
Olivier Messiaen, Composer
The Guy Barker Orchestra
Timothy Redmond, Conductor
Pièce en forme de habanera Maurice Ravel, Composer
Alison Balsom, Trumpet
Guy Barker, Conductor
Maurice Ravel, Composer
The Guy Barker Orchestra
Concerto for Piano and Orchestra, Movement: Adagio assai Maurice Ravel, Composer
Alison Balsom, Trumpet
Maurice Ravel, Composer
The Guy Barker Orchestra
Timothy Redmond, Conductor
(6) Gnossiennes, Movement: No. 3 (1890) Erik Satie, Composer
Alison Balsom, Trumpet
Erik Satie, Composer
Guy Barker, Conductor
The Guy Barker Orchestra
Les feuilles mortes Joseph Kosma, Composer
Al Cherry, Guitar
Alison Balsom, Trumpet
Guy Barker, Conductor
Joseph Kosma, Composer
The Guy Barker Orchestra
Studying in Paris helped to define Alison Balsom’s belief of what a virtuoso trumpet soloist might achieve in the footsteps of her mentor, Maurice André. This potpourri of a recital is, though, very much of its own time, eclectically flavoured in its collaborative elements and juxtaposition of music languages, and deftly underpinned by Balsom’s considered curating.

If the opening Satie Gymnopédie represents something of a beguiling temptress, a pair of Piazzollas reveal the soloist’s inimitable capacity for shaping a melody with the seasoned tonal focus and impeccable intonation which are integral to Balsom’s admired armoury.

For all the ‘loungey’ resonances in the arrangements, there is considerably more skill here than meets the eye. One could never imagine how Michel Legrand’s La valse des lilas could morph successfully into a reimagined vision of Messaien’s ‘Le baiser de l’Enfant-Jésus’ – but it does with almost Ravelian exoticism. Purists who followed Yvonne Loriod’s Vingt regards around the world may run a mile, but the result is an ensemble piece of kaleidoscopic discrimination and invention.

Slow-tempo trumpet discs can take their toll in a single sitting, however fine the playing, but there is a pleasing overall shape here; only in the arrangement of the slow movement of the Ravel concerto does the removal of the composer’s exquisite original textures occasionally outweigh the gains, not helped by some neutral longueurs in the emotional journey. Atmospherically recorded (as if in a smoky Montmartre club), with a high proportion of excellent arrangements to match Balsom’s measured panache, the key to this project’s success lies in how she, Guy Barker and Timothy Redmond have restitched a seam of Parisian music culture and envisaged a world which has taken on a life of its own.

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