Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Widely considered the finest classical trumpet player of her generation, performing in the world's great concert halls.
On the island
Eight records
Guest said: 'Dizzy Gillespie is one of the all-time great trumpeters and when I just started the trumpet… I fell in love with this recording…'
Guest said: 'My granny and granddad lived in Knebworth… we did actually hear Queen live across the fields in Knebworth.'
Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 in D major, BWV 1050: I. AllegroFavourite
The English Concert / Trevor Pinnock
Guest said: 'I remember listening with my Walkman to this track and not knowing what it was… it took my breath away.'
Symphony No. 5: V. Adagietto – Rondo-Finale (Allegro – Allegro giocoso)
Chicago Symphony Orchestra / Sir Georg Solti
Guest said: 'This piece reminds me of my National Youth Orchestra days… the whole symphony starts with a solo trumpet, very lonely.'
Guest said: 'When I was a teenager, the bodyguard came out and that was when I discovered Whitney Houston. Her voice is something else.'
Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 61: I. Allegro ma non troppo
Maxim Vengerov / London Symphony Orchestra / Mstislav Rostropovich
Guest said: 'He is, in my opinion, one of the greatest musicians of all time… he's the single most important influence on me as a musician.'
March from Music for the Funeral of Queen Mary
Aequale Brass Ensemble / Sir John Eliot Gardiner
Guest said: 'It reminds me of one of the greatest projects of my life… at Shakespeare's Globe called Gabriel.'
Ruht wohl, ihr heiligen Gebeine (Chorus)
Collegium Vocale Gent / Philippe Herreweghe
Guest said: 'The Matthew Passion is one of my greatest loves… I've chosen this, which is from the St John's Passion.'
In conversation
Presenter asks
2:22Do you suffer anxiety or dreams or anything before a big performance?
I do actually. I've got a recurring dream. It doesn't happen often, but my recurring dream is that I'm standing on a paving slab fifty centimetres square. Suddenly everything around that paving slab drops a mile. Nothing changes about what you're doing, but everything around you is completely different. And you know, if you take a step wrong, literally you'll be off the edge of this mile-high column.
Presenter asks
5:26You have said that the trumpet is a classless instrument. That's an interesting phrase. What do you mean?
It's quite universal. It works in many, many genres of music and it's a relatively cheap instrument. You can pick one up in a charity shop, I think, these days for maybe fifty quid.
Presenter asks
8:58And they took you to a concert at the Barbican, which proved pivotal, I think. Tell me about that.
I was 10 and I remember, I think my parents kind of almost saved up for that concert because it was an expensive night out. … But I remember it like it was yesterday, that it was the English Chamber Orchestra and it was Håkan Hardenberger, the Swedish trumpet virtuoso, playing the Hummel concerto. And when I realised that the trumpet was capable of playing as a solo instrument in front of an orchestra … I thought, yeah, that's what I want to do. I can't imagine doing anything else.
The keepsakes
The book
Johann Sebastian Bach
I think I would have to choose the complete scores of Bach because I find his music endlessly nourishing and invigorating and and so many emotions I can find in it and I don't know enough of it and I feel that if I had the scores I could just disappear and live inside those scores.
The luxury
Well, I think my luxury would have to be my trumpet because even though it's funny for me to say that because so much of the time, you know, if I'm at home and I've finished for the day, I'll literally hide the trumpet so I don't have to think about it or see it. It used to belong to a a friend of mine and I now play it and I would say it's almost like a guardian angel. It looks out for me. I think with all that time on my hands I might actually be able to really master that instrument. I mean no one ever really masters an instrument but I could have a good go on the desert island.
Presenter asks
17:10You are, Alison Balsom, very good looking, and the phrase that has followed you around is 'the crumpet with a trumpet'. The only reason I feel comfortable saying that is because I'm told that you're the person who invented it. Am I right?
Well, as we know, things shouldn't be said in irony to the press. … I said it in a press interview. … It's a lazy tagline and it's incredibly insulting because what I do is about … working so hard to forge a career that was prestigious in some way and this cropping up every time I did any kind of PR was incredibly damaging and incredibly difficult to deal with without sounding really pompous about it.
Presenter asks
21:53And being an international artist, of course, means you must be very familiar with airport departure lounges all around the world. Do you have rituals to make those anonymous hotel rooms and rehearsal rooms feel just a little bit more personal?
Well, I actually have to say I do really enjoy it now because before I had Charlie I was on the road all the time. … Charlie came at the perfect time in terms of my career in that I could then stop for a little bit and just pick and choose what I did … I really do look forward to the travel I now do and I'm just very efficient with my diary. One example that comes to mind is recently I took my son to school on a Tuesday morning and I went to Heathrow and I got on a plane and I slept for 13 hours, got off, went to the orchestra in South Korea, did the concert … and picked my son up from school on Thursday afternoon.
Presenter asks
26:54And what about children here in the UK and music? You've said it is a basic right for children to have music lessons. But surely if it's a choice between maths textbooks or music lessons, schools are going to choose the maths textbooks?
You can't choose one or the other. Of course, you can't dump your math textbooks. Education is not about getting a job, though. Education is about making a rounded human being. … It's just so obvious to me that it's an important thing. And just because we can't harness it into a specific profession doesn't mean it's not as valuable as the subjects which of course we must also take in school.
“The all-time highlight of my career and almost my life would be playing at The Last Night of the Proms in the Albert Hall in 2009… It was the biggest thrill really of my musical life and everything since then almost has felt like an encore.”
“Playing jazz trumpet and classical trumpet is so different. It's almost like two different instruments. In my opinion, it's because as a classical musician, I think very horizontally, very melodically. And as a jazz musician, perhaps you think more harmonically or vertically.”
“I think it's pointless to force a child to practice because you'll just make them hate it. But I do think that you need to find a way to inspire them and make them think, wow, this is something for me in some way, almost set it up so they feel that they have found it for themselves.”
“If I'd known how difficult it was gonna be, maybe I would have had second thoughts. … This has been the greatest challenge of my career, but also the most enjoyable path to follow because it feels like one that no one's ever trodden before.”
“I pretty much always think of [Maxim Vengerov] at that very moment [just before my big entry]. And then he's gone. … But I always pretend I'm him with his power, his control, his vulnerability, the beauty of his sound.”
“We went to Uganda and we saw firsthand how street children … were utterly transformed by the fact that they played these brass instruments. You know, they had something to live for every day.”