Album: Alison Balsom, Italian Concertos (EMI Classics)

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.

DOWNLOAD THIS Oboe Concerto in B flat Op. 7 No. 3