Seraph

Following the international success of her critically-acclaimed Italian Concertos - about which BBC Music Magazine raved: "listening to it is nothing less than a life-enhancing experience"- trumpet superstar Alison Balsom releases an exciting and important new album of modern trumpet concertos. Entitled Seraph, the album leads with the world-premiere recording of James MacMillan's similarly-named trumpet concerto, a work written especially for Balsom and featuring the exploratory yet accessible compositional style MacMillan has become known for. The album also includes two other concertos: The Trumpet Concerto in a flat major by Alexander Arutiunian - a staple in the repertory thanks to it's simple and attractive musical language which incorporates features of Armenian folk music - and Bernd Alois Zimmermann's haunting, impossibly virtuosic Trumpet Concerto in C Major. The disc also features "Paths" by Toru Takemitsu - a solo trumpet piece that combines elements of Eastern and Western musical philosophies, and rounding out the program is a sparse, gripping arrangement of the American spiritual "Nobody Knows, " arranged by Tom Foster and Alison herself.