Sarah Urwin Jones, The Times
October 7, 2008

Linking Italian Baroque and Soviet Modernism via the fire bombing of Dresden might sound like grasping at musical straws. But given the rather odd aural juxtaposition of Albinoni (whose well-known Adagio was recreated from six bars found in the ruins of the city library) and Shostakovich (who wrote his dark String Quartet No 8 in the aftermath) in this Scottish Ensemble season-opener, one can't blame the director Jonathan Morton for trying.

The real answer to this crashing contrast of styles lies, one suspects, in the choice of soloist. Alison Balsom is currently on a career updraft that most trumpeters only dream of, but any suggestions of overzealous PR are swept aside by her delicate, expressive playing intimately linking breath, sound and emotion. It makes her a revelation in Baroque and a no-brainer for powerful Shostakovich.

And when it comes to repertoire, Balsom's judgment is spot-on, here airing her new transcription for trumpet of Albinoni's 1714 Sonata for Violin in D minor. Proud, elegiac almost, Balsom plays with flashes of breath-sapping coloratura brilliance, somewhat more life-threatening on the trumpet than the violin.

Blasting all before it like a musical lime pickle came the compelling, concluding Shostakovich, whose brash, brilliant 1933 Concerto No 1 in C for piano, trumpet and strings often comes off like a joke at someone else's expense - one has a sneaking feeling it's the audience's.

The young Perth pianist Alasdair Beatson, bullet-fingered in the jazzy, dysfunctional allegro, had a tendency to syrupy rubato but was ably led astray by Balsom's petulant, irrepressible trumpet. Corralling the soloists in their trademark standing semi-circle - looking not a little like a child's game - the Scottish Ensemble clearly enjoyed tapping the schizophrenic emotions of this wild, humorous piece.