Music Web International: outstanding. This recording charts a decisive chapter in the trombone’s modern history, presenting works that expand both its expressive range and symbolic weight. Frank Martin’s Ballade stands as a quiet turning point, combining clarity of form with a newly contemporary harmonic language that liberated the instrument from purely Romantic convention. Kazimierz Serocki’s concerto balances folk-tinged surfaces with an undercurrent of irony and tension, revealing a more complex, inward voice beneath its apparent restraint. Ernest Bloch’s deeply serious symphony draws on archaic and ritual associations, evoking a solemn, almost liturgical sound world in which the trombone speaks with prophetic gravity. The journey culminates in Jan Sandström’s concerto, conceived as a modern odyssey: a sequence of vivid soundscapes linked by motion, color, and striking sonic imagery. Here the trombone becomes both storyteller and traveler, moving effortlessly between lyric meditation, raw sonority, and extreme virtuosity. Throughout, the instrument emerges not merely as a soloist but as a narrative presence—capable of reflection, drama, and imaginative transformation within the orchestral landscape.