October 15, 2010
The Independent and [Dublin] Sunday Tribune / Andy Gill / 15 October 2010
Album: Alison Balsom, Italian Concertos (EMI Classics)
Reviewed by Andy Gill

To follow up her acclaimed album Haydn Hummel Trumpet Concertos, the phenomenally gifted Alison Balsom turns her attention to Italian composers, with a selection of concertos originally composed for violin or oboe by Vivaldi, Albinoni, Tartini, Cimarosa and Marcello.

It's a typically elegant affair: Balsom's bright tone and tight phrasing on the opening Allegro of "Vivaldi's Violin Concerto in A Minor" gives way to more subtle work on the Largo, with a series of delicate, feathery trills. Similarly, her nimble fingering on the opening section of Albinoni's "Oboe Concerto in B flat Op. 7 No. 3" is supplanted by long, poised notes on the Adagio section. An eloquent performance.