Choose artist...
Stories   >   Paul Merkelo - The Enlightened Trumpet is the WCRB: CD of the Week

Stories for March 26, 2025

Top 10 for Mar

More Albums with Paul Merkelo

Paul Merkelo - The Enlightened Trumpet is the WCRB: CD of the Week

Posted: January 20, 2020
Interview with WCRB's Brian McCreath

There's a fearlessness that comes with the territory when you're a musician. Doing your job every day in front of thousands of people who are waiting to be impressed is not what many of us would choose to do with our lives. When you layer on top of that an instrument that's meant to cut through large orchestral textures, which also means that any mistakes or misfires are more than noticeable, that courage necessary to get through the day ratchets up a few extra notches.

And that's also what one needs if one is to record four concertos that have also been recorded by virtually every great trumpeter since recording was invented, not the least of which is Maurice André. The legendary French trumpeter's recordings of the concertos by Haydn, Hummel, Telemann, and Leopold Mozart are required listening for any aspiring trumpeter. Enter Paul Merkelo, who, since 1995, has been the Principal Trumpeter of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra.

He's released three previous recordings, each of them stellar (that's the kind of player he is). But this is the first that brings together the most iconic works for his instrument. Merkelo calls it The Enlightened Trumpet, evoking the Age of Enlightenment that swept across Europe between the late 1600's and early 1800's - the very timeframe in which these four concertos were created.

The Principal Trumpeter of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra navigates four brilliant and foundational concertos for his instrument, and it's WCRB's CD of the Week.

Merkelo talks with WCRB: Boston - Brian McCreath about "The Enlightened Trumpet" and check out his performance in WCRB's Fraser Performance Studio.