"Trumpet recitals are among the rarest of events in the classical music realm. It's just a guess on my part, but I imagine that recitals by female trumpeters have tended to be ever so slightly rarer. Which is to say that Sunday evening's appearance by Tine Thing Helseth for the Shriver Hall Concert Series was extra cool.

"Baltimore has experienced a bounty of Bach, Beethoven and Brahms, among others, in recent days.

"One of the coolest things about Bach is how all that technical and expressive beauty is as apparent in a work for solo violin as in a large-scale piece for chorus and orchestra. This point was driven home superbly by Gil Shaham during his all-Bach, all-unaccompanied recital for the Shriver Hall Concert Series Sunday evening."