{"id":48062,"date":"2024-10-03T10:08:25","date_gmt":"2024-10-03T08:08:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/38f3df8c-f975-4984-bb76-5023de0c7256"},"modified":"2024-10-03T11:07:16","modified_gmt":"2024-10-03T09:07:16","slug":"i-was-in-a-cold-sweat-for-28-minutes-trumpeter-alison-balsom-on-her-best-and-worst-concert-performances","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/rss_feed\/i-was-in-a-cold-sweat-for-28-minutes-trumpeter-alison-balsom-on-her-best-and-worst-concert-performances\/","title":{"rendered":"‘I was in a cold sweat for 28 minutes’ \u2013 trumpeter Alison Balsom on her best and worst concert performances"},"content":{"rendered":"

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By <\/p>

Published: Thursday, 03 October 2024 at 08:08 AM<\/p>

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Leading British trumpeter Alison Balsom recalls her best and worst performances…<\/strong><\/p>

Alison Balsom – Concert Heaven<\/h2>
Wynton Marsalis Trumpet ConcertoLondon Symphony Orchestra\/Antonio\u00a0PappanoElbphilharmonie, Hamburg (April\u00a02024)<\/p>
It might sound far fetched, but you know how musicians say, \u2018You\u2019re only as good as your last gig\u2019? Well, my last gig happened to be one of the best gigs I\u2019ve ever done. It was a personal journey that\u2019s been coming since I was 15 years old, when I took part in the Shell LSO Competition. I absolutely hero-worshipped the players in the London Symphony Orchestra<\/a><\/strong>; they were like the supersonic jets of the trumpet<\/a><\/strong> world. As a soloist, I\u2019ve played with many orchestras but I\u2019d never played with the LSO. So when the opportunity arose to play Wynton Marsalis\u2019s new Trumpet Concerto with them on tour with Antonio Pappano<\/a><\/strong>, I felt so happy. Here was the moment, at last, to play with them, and to have a real piece to get my teeth into that had never been played with the orchestra before.\u00a0<\/p>
Famous trumpet players: 5 of the most influential trumpeters of the modern era<\/a><\/strong><\/li><\/ul>
The concert hall was enormous…<\/h3>
We did four concerts and it was very exploratory, because of course the piece is brand new and Wynton Marsalis likes to make changes. It\u2019s a living, breathing article, in a way. The fourth concert was in the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, which is enormous. It was fantastic and the orchestra played so well in that space. But it\u2019s got a very curious acoustic for a soloist. If you stand right at the front of the stage and it\u2019s very full of musicians, it\u2019s a very dry acoustic. <\/p>
<\/div><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Alison Balsom performs Wynton Marsalis’s Trumpet Concerto<\/figcaption><\/figure><p>So for that one concert I actually stood way back in the orchestra, near the brass section \u2013 which was full of my dear friends. So, I could project not only to the audience but across the orchestra. It was the most amazing feeling I think I\u2019ve ever had playing as a soloist. I was within the sound, but coming out of the orchestra, because I was standing up and slightly raised. It felt like it was the moment I had been looking for since I was 15. And working with Pappano was a very memorable experience, too.<\/p><ul><li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/jazz\/best-jazz-trumpet-players-ever\">15 of the best jazz trumpeters ever<\/a><\/strong><\/li><\/ul><h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Alison Balsom – Concert Hell<\/h2><p>Hummel Trumpet Concerto in E\u00a0flat\u00a0major<br\/>Collegium Musicum Copenhagen\/Michael Sch\u01ffnwandt<br\/>Kongelige Teater, Copenhagen (September\u00a02007)<\/p><p>Many people wonder why I don\u2019t play the Hummel Concerto, which is obviously a much-loved trumpet concerto, in the original E major key. It was written in E major, which is an unusual key. But at the time it worked very well for the keyed trumpet, which fell out of favour after that time.\u00a0<\/p><ul><li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/articles\/what-are-the-different-periods-of-classical-music\">Musical eras: what are the different periods of classical music?<\/a><\/strong><\/li><\/ul><p>I play the C trumpet, which I\u2019ve been playing since I went to the Paris Conservatoire, and I love it because it\u2019s a slightly darker sound. People play the E flat trumpet to play these Classical period concertos, partly because it\u2019s sweeter and slightly lighter. I really wanted to play the Hummel on the C trumpet, in E. It\u2019s more physically demanding, but it\u2019s got a real\u00a0breadth\u00a0of\u00a0sound.\u00a0<\/p><ul><li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/instruments\/best-trumpet-music\">Best trumpet music: classical music’s finest works for trumpet<\/a><\/strong><\/li><\/ul><h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The concerto was in a different key!<\/h3><p>I finally programmed it with the Collegium Musicum Copenhagen, and when I arrived at the rehearsal I discovered it was not in E! Of course, as a musician you\u2019re not going to refuse to play to an audience who are coming in one hour, so you know you\u2019re going to have to do it. I\u2019d played it in E flat many times, but I hadn\u2019t practised it in E flat for months and months. So I had just an hour to work out how to play the whole piece down a semitone!\u00a0<\/p><ul><li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/musical-terms\/what-is-the-difference-between-a-sharp-and-a-flat-note\">What’s the difference between sharp and flat notes?<\/a><\/strong><\/li><\/ul><figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-4-3 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Alison Balsom, Hummel - Trumpet Concerto in Eb, 3rd\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/7GVbfU0oINA?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen=\"\"\/><\/div><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Alison Balsom perform’s Hummel’s Trumpet Concerto – this time in E flat!<\/figcaption><\/figure><p>We absolutely have those notes deep within us somewhere, but with the trumpet it\u2019s so easy to split and miss a note. Your embouchure is set up for the exact intonation you\u2019re expecting; of course in the Classical period, even with modern instruments there\u2019s quite a variation in pitch depending on whether you\u2019re playing a third or a fifth. So I remember being in a cold sweat for a good 28 minutes. I don\u2019t remember anything about the performance; I clearly just had my head down! I was disappointmented, though, because I was so looking forward to playing it in E. And because of that, I just don\u2019t do it.<\/p><ul><li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/instruments\/trumpet-valves-keys-mutes-how-to-play\">The trumpet: its valves, keys, mutes and how to hold, play and tune it<\/a><\/strong><\/li><\/ul><p><em>Alison Balsom\u2019s new album of <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.warnerclassics.com\/release\/baroque-concertos\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Italian Baroque Concertos<\/a><\/strong> is out on Warner Classics on 18 October.<\/em><\/p> <\/body><\/html>\n<hr class=\"no-tts wp-block-separator\"\/>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Published: Thursday, 03 October 2024 at 08:08 AM Leading British trumpeter Alison Balsom recalls her best and worst performances… Alison Balsom – Concert Heaven Wynton Marsalis Trumpet ConcertoLondon Symphony Orchestra\/Antonio\u00a0PappanoElbphilharmonie, Hamburg (April\u00a02024) It might sound far fetched, but you know how musicians say, \u2018You\u2019re only as good as your last gig\u2019? Well, my last […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":48063,"template":"","categories":[1],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"4"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2024\/10\/i-was-in-a-cold-sweat-for-28-minutes-trumpeter-alison-balsom-on-her-best-and-worst-concert-performances.jpg",1200,800,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2024\/10\/i-was-in-a-cold-sweat-for-28-minutes-trumpeter-alison-balsom-on-her-best-and-worst-concert-performances-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2024\/10\/i-was-in-a-cold-sweat-for-28-minutes-trumpeter-alison-balsom-on-her-best-and-worst-concert-performances-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2024\/10\/i-was-in-a-cold-sweat-for-28-minutes-trumpeter-alison-balsom-on-her-best-and-worst-concert-performances-768x512.jpg",768,512,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2024\/10\/i-was-in-a-cold-sweat-for-28-minutes-trumpeter-alison-balsom-on-her-best-and-worst-concert-performances-1024x683.jpg",800,534,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2024\/10\/i-was-in-a-cold-sweat-for-28-minutes-trumpeter-alison-balsom-on-her-best-and-worst-concert-performances.jpg",1200,800,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2024\/10\/i-was-in-a-cold-sweat-for-28-minutes-trumpeter-alison-balsom-on-her-best-and-worst-concert-performances.jpg",1200,800,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"By Published: Thursday, 03 October 2024 at 08:08 AM Leading British trumpeter Alison Balsom recalls her best and worst performances… Alison Balsom – Concert Heaven Wynton Marsalis Trumpet ConcertoLondon Symphony Orchestra\/Antonio\u00a0PappanoElbphilharmonie, Hamburg (April\u00a02024) It might sound far fetched, but you know how musicians say, \u2018You\u2019re only as good as your last gig\u2019? 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