Jonathan Morton / Scottish Ensemble ANNA MEREDITH - VIVALDI Anno

Anno was conceived when Scottish Ensemble Artistic Director Jonathan Morton drew parallels between Anna’s writing style and that of Vivaldi. Already admiring her idiosyncratic writing in the pop/electronic world, Jonathan approached Anna about a new piece for strings and electronics. As one of the most recognisable pieces of classical music of all time, Four Seasons was the perfect piece for Anna to work with, crafting experimental and idiosyncratic partner pieces to sit alongside Vivaldi’s original compositions. The result is a continuous musical experience, blending old and new, ‘classical’ and ‘popular’ without distinction and Anna’s fascinating new pieces binding seamlessly with the original work.

Anna Meredith is one of the most exciting compositional talents in both new classical and electronic music. Straddling the worlds of contemporary classical, avant pop, electronica and experimental rock, her music has been broadcast on Radios 1, 2, 3, 4 and 6. Whilst her classical accolades include Composer in Residence with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, RPS/PRS Composer in the House with Sinfonia ViVA, classical music representative for the 2009 South Bank Show Breakthrough Award and winner of the 2010 Paul Hamlyn Award for Composers, she has recently caused ripples of excitement amongst national music press, peers and fans over her debut album,Varmints – released on Moshi Moshi Records on 4 March to instant critical and cult acclaim.

Her works have been performed by leading orchestras and ensembles at an impressive range of events, from the Last Night of the Proms to Latitude Festival, PRADA fashion campaigns and a flash mob performances at motorway service stations.

Alison Balsom ARUTIUNIAN - MacMILLAN - ZIMMERMANN Trumpet Concertos

British trumpet player Alison Balsom has established herself as one of the leading performers on her instrument in the early 21st century. This 2012 album features three modern and contemporary concertos for trumpet. Balsom is phenomenally secure in her technique and in the musicality she brings to each of the pieces. The BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Lawrence Renes, and the Scottish Ensemble, led by Jonathan Morton, provide colorful and energetic accompaniment. Bernd Alois Zimmermann's 1954 Trumpet Concerto is the standout work on the album. It is certainly one of the most distinguished, substantial, and immediately appealing trumpet concertos of the 20th century. It is subtitled "Nobody knows de troubles I see," and uses the melody of the spiritual as the basis for its sophisticated musical development. Like many of Zimmermann's works, its themes are political and he changed the title from "seen" to "see" to highlight the ongoing struggle for racial equality throughout the world, with pointed reference to the lingering racist attitudes of National Socialism in post-war Germany. It's an intensely dramatic and inventive piece; Zimmermann interweaves the original spiritual with jazz influences and modernist techniques in a way that's emotionally direct and thoroughly engrossing. Balsom negotiates its extreme demands with complete assurance. The Trumpet Concerto in A flat by Armenian composer Alexander Arutiunian, written in 1950, bears the stamp of the Soviet demand that music be immediately entertaining for the proletariat. The concerto is tuneful and uses folk material and for the most part sounds like it could be the soundtrack for an "exotic" adventure film. What it lacks in musical sophistication it makes up for in the opportunities it gives the soloist to really shine melodically. James MacMillan's 2010 concerto Seraph, which Balsom premiered, is an inoffensive but not especially profound work, characterized by pleasant, lyrical note-spinning. EMI's sound is pristine, balanced, and nicely ambient. (Stephen Eddins)