Classical home listening: Sarah Willis: Mozart y Mambo: Cuban Dances; Alison Balsom: Quiet City

Horn player Sarah Willis returns to Cuba for more sizzling collaborations, while trumpet virtuoso Alison Balsom captivates in Copland, Bernstein and more

Sarah Willis, a member of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra since 2001 and the orchestra’s first female brass player, has triumphed variously in many directions, as TV presenter and chamber musician, as well as being a persuasive champion of the french horn. Two years ago she teamed up with musicians in Havana. The result was their joyful collaboration, Mozart y Mambo, in which she and the band played Mozart alongside traditional Cuban music. Now a second disc is out: Mozart y Mambo: Cuban Dances (Alpha Classics), with the Havana Lyceum Orchestra and conductor José Antonio Méndez Padrón.

Willis is the first-class soloist in Mozart’s Horn Concerto No 1 in D and No 2 in E flat. A seven-strong ensemble, enchantingly called Sarahbanda, perform Pa Pa Pa by Edgar Olivero, inspired by the Papageno/Papagena duet from Mozart’s The Magic Flute. The fizzing Havana Lyceum Orchestra plays traditional Cuban dances, for solo horn, strings and percussion, with a difference: all have been commissioned by Willis, from six young Cuban composers. Enrique Lazaga (güiro), a member of the original Buena Vista Social Club, makes a guest appearance. With a suave rumba (with chirping cricket), bolero and cha-cha-cha – Sarahchá – this is perfect hot weather music.

This star player is put through her hornist paces and comes out dancing. Some of the proceeds will go to buying instruments for the young Havana musicians.

Watch a clip of Sarahchá, performed by Sarah Willis and co.

• The starting point for trumpeter Alison Balsom’s latest solo album was a concert in 2017 at London’s Barbican with the Britten Sinfonia. Quiet City (Warner Classics), conducted by Scott Stroman, is the result. The mix of mid-20th-century repertoire in the seven tracks is predominantly American, from Aaron Copland’s Quiet City to Charles Ives’s The Unanswered Question, and the Lonely Town Pas de deux from Leonard Bernstein’s On the Town.

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. She is joined by oboist Nicholas Daniel, playing cor anglais on Quiet City, and the pianist Tom Poster in Simon Wright’s skilful arrangement of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue. Balsom’s virtuosity is spellbinding throughout.

Alison Balsom plays Bernstein: Lonely Town. Pas de deux (from On the Town)

• On Tuesday the Australian World Orchestra makes its Proms debut with the conductor Zubin Mehta, who is a rare sight in the UK. Tune in for some Brahms and Brett Dean. Radio 3, 7.30pm/BBC Sounds.

Contributor

Fiona Maddocks

The GuardianTramp

Related Content

Article image
Classical home listening: Mozart, mambo, Miss Julie and more
Sarah Willis has a ball in Havana, William Alwyn’s opera grips, and John Wilson and co run riot with Respighi

Fiona Maddocks

25, Jul, 2020 @11:00 AM

Article image
Classical home listening: Ukrainian music from Nathan Milstein to the Proms
The Odesa-born violinist’s US Armed Forces recordings have aged well; the Met’s recent benefit concert is now an album; and the Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra at the Royal Albert Hall

Fiona Maddocks

30, Jul, 2022 @11:00 AM

Article image
Classical home listening: Sarah Willis’s Cuban farewell; vocal works by Stuart MacRae
Horn player Sarah Willis is joined by three Berlin Phil colleagues on her final, joyful Cuban album. And electronica meets Middle English in MacRae’s absorbing new set of songs

Fiona Maddocks

19, Aug, 2023 @11:00 AM

Article image
Classical home listening: Mozart, Brahms and to the movies…
Francesco Piemontesi, the SCO and Andrew Manze are a perfect fit; Brahms from Vienna; and Max Richter and fellow screen composers compare notes

Fiona Maddocks

22, Aug, 2020 @11:00 AM

Article image
Classical home listening: Chineke!’s Nutcracker Suite; Angela Hewitt’s Mozart Sonatas
Chineke! swing in an infectious jazz version of Tchaikovsky’s ballet by Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn. And Angela Hewitt keeps Mozart wonderfully fresh

Stephen Pritchard

04, Nov, 2023 @12:00 PM

Article image
Classical home listening: Falla from Mexico City, Elgar from Berlin
The Orchestra of the Americas is on sizzling form, while Daniel Barenboim celebrates 70 years of concert life with another great Elgar recording

Fiona Maddocks

15, Aug, 2020 @11:00 AM

Article image
Home listening: Savall’s Mozart, Bavouzet’s Haydn – and more Mozart
Jordi Savall misses a golden opportunity, and Jean-Efflam Bavouzet reaches Volume 8 of his Haydn cycle

Nicholas Kenyon

28, Jul, 2019 @7:00 AM

Article image
Home listening: sensational Semiramide and pre-teen Mozart
A dazzling cast, Mark Elder and the OAE join forces in epic Rossini, while Classical Opera and the Mozartists have fun with Bastien and Bastienne

Stephen Pritchard

16, Sep, 2018 @6:00 AM

Article image
Classical home listening: Rodelinda, Miloš and more
Lucy Crowe and Iestyn Davies lead the English Concert’s first-rate recording of Handel’s 1725 opera

Fiona Maddocks

15, May, 2021 @11:00 AM

Article image
Classical home listening: Bruch, Prokofiev and Schumann
The Nash Ensemble are the ideal advocates for Bruch’s chamber music; and violist Timothy Ridout takes on an entire ballet and song cycle

Fiona Maddocks

14, Aug, 2021 @11:00 AM