Santtu-Matias Rouvali conductor
Alison Balsom trumpet

BEETHOVEN  Symphony No. 2
HUMMEL  Trumpet Concerto
BIZET   Symphony in C

A chance to hear one of the freshest performers in British classical music today. The glamorous Alison Balsom has injected a new lease of life into solo trumpet playing, and in so doing has collected two Classical Brits, numerous awards by Classic FM, Gramophone and Echo Klassik, and made an appearance on The Late Show with David Letterman. She performs Hummel’s Trumpet Concerto, one of the liveliest for the instrument, with a lyrically wistful slow movement and a virtuosic last movement. It is bookended by a German and a French symphony. Beethoven’s Second Symphony is sunny and good-humoured, with a finale plainly looking backwards in style to Bach. Bizet’s Symphony in C is based on the work of a French great – his tutor, Charles François Gounod. Bizet was still a teenager when he wrote the piece, yet this is widely considered to be his finest orchestral score.