John's CD of the week: Alison Balsom - Italian Concertos

18 October: Classic FM favourite Alison Balsom is Britain’s most famous trumpeter, and she’s done great things to popularise the music of her instrument over the last few years.

Alison’s received many accolades: among them, Best Young Performer at the 2006 Classical BRITs, and the first British Female Artist of the Year at the 2009 ceremony.

For this, her new disc, Alison heads to Italy and profiles the music of Vivaldi, Albinoni and Cimarosa, accompanied by the Scottish Ensemble.

Reviews for the album are already hugely positive, with one Italian critic recently declaring Alison as playing “with sparkling ease and technical brilliance”.

Join Simon Bates every day this week, just after 10am, for music from this, our CD of the Week.

Have a go at our Daily Quiz and you could win this CD.

Watch an exclusive video interview with Alison Balsom here.