Revisiting the improvisatory practice of jazz icons with highly idiosyncratic techniques can fall flat, but Balsom and the Britten Sinfonia make it work. They are entirely idiomatic and wonderfully engaging, both here [the Rodrigo/Evans] and in their other sketches of America.

To say that Balsom is in touch with the soul of her instrument would be to downplay her artistry...there are technical things she does here so effortlessly that we her listeners can just relax into the phrasemaking as if it’s something she’s made up on the spot.

From her innate mastery of Copland’s unique language of spacious melancholy to her blend of extroversion and lyricism in the Gershwin and her adept shift into the language of jazz for the Rodrigo, Balsom’s musicianship itself – rather than any reference to a historical moment – is the real unifying thread.

As an entity it creates a varied album in every kind of mood. It will delight anyone, not only the trumpet expert, who admires Balsom’s eclecticism and musical brilliance...Balsom’s virtuosity is spellbinding throughout.

I looked forward to Alison Balsom’s album with Britten Sinfonia, Quiet City, and relished her colours in the Copland title track and the beauty of Ives’s The Unanswered Question.