17 and 18 September 2009

"If trumpet virtuoso Alison Balsom wanted to repeat her enthusiastic Albert Hall Last Night Of The Proms reception, relayed to millions worldwide, then she had come to the right place.

Here was a confident performance, with an engagingly light and tripping finale - followed by a succinct, but actually more impressive, solo encore by Debussy."
- Liverpool Echo, 19 September 2009

"[I]t was the refined performance by Alison Balsom which stole the show. A brilliantly controlled cadenza in the first movement of the Haydn Trumpet Concerto led through the lyrical and, in this performance, perhaps a little introverted, slow movement and into another fun-packed finale.

Her encore was possibly the most interesting work in the whole programme. Debussy wrote Syrinx in 1912 for solo flute but playing it on a trumpet might make the highly subtle nuances in the piece somewhat evasive. But nothing of it. Here was another finely evocative performance of a piece which is as haunting as it is brimming with mystery."
- Liverpool Daily Post, 21 September 2009