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Stories   >   Pristine intonation, natural brilliance, and genuine artistry from Paul Merkelo on new 'Trumpet Concertos' album / EarRelevant

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Pristine intonation, natural brilliance, and genuine artistry from Paul Merkelo on new 'Trumpet Concertos' album / EarRelevant

Posted: November 8, 2022

EarRelevant's Giorgio Koukl writes….Trumpet concertos are, despite the instrument’s limitations per se, quite frequent. Still, little is left when considering the romantic and modern eras once the many baroque productions are filtered out.

The brilliant Canadian trumpet player Paul Merkelo is proposing in this highly spectacular installment three composers from the Soviet era, some well-known like Shostakovich, some lesser epigones from the latter like Wienberg or Arutiunian.

The absolute focal point here is the soloist, who, whatever music is playing, is able to capture the listener’s attention with his pristine intonation, natural brilliance, and genuine artistry. He is, without any doubt, the hero of this CD.

The well-known Trumpet Concerto by the Armenian composer Alexander Arutiunian (1920-2012) was written in 1950, and today it may be the best-known work of this partly forgotten artist. With its single 15-minute movement, it is a composition written in a skillful way to please everybody, being contemporaneously acceptable for the Communist Party, the listener, and last but not least for the soloist. Coming from a composer otherwise known only for his ode to Stalin and one also for Lenin, this is a challenging act of balancing the musical needs and the political pressures of his times. Nonetheless, it is a real treat for every trumpet player and here interpreted splendidly by Mr. Merkelo. The concerto is provided with a cadenza written by Timofei Dokschitzer, a musical personality who is in some way involved with all the other concertos.

Mieczyslaw Weinberg (1919-1996), born in Poland but became a Soviet citizen during the Second World War, wrote his only Trumpet Concerto in B-flat major, op. 94, relatively late: 1966-67. This music, again, is quite spectacular, Hollywood style, and certainly rewarding for the soloist. It has the classical three-movement form and, since this composer and Dmitry Shostakovich frequently exchanged views about their works and intentions, was called by the latter “a symphony for trumpet and orchestra,” perhaps due also to its unusual length.

The last and the most intriguing concerto is the four-movement arrangement of the Concerto No. 1, op. 35, for piano, trumpet, and strings (1933) by Dmitry Shostakovich (1906-1975).

Given the necessity to ask special permission from the Shostakovich estate to rearrange this concerto to get a more prominent part for the trumpet, one can vividly imagine all the difficulties that must have been involved.

Here once again, the figure of Timofei Dokschitzer emerges. He was the first to play a semi-official version, where the piano’s right hand was often “morphed” into a trumpet part. Anyway, this arrangement is entirely new, and it must be said it is very well made. Jae-Hyuck Cho brilliantly plays the difficult piano part. Hans Graf conducts the Russian National Orchestra with a firm hand and a great sense of dynamic array.

As the available data on the CD’s tray card indicates, this recording was made only in five days. Once again a real miracle of the producer Michael Fine and the engineer Erdo Groot, who managed to produce a very appealing sonic image working in a Moscow hall that is very far from being suitable for acceptable acoustics.

Due to the actual war situation in Europe’s East, the soloist Paul Merkelo, of Ukrainian origin, is assigning all of the financial revenues to the humanitarian needs of his native country. 


Paul Merkelo, trumpet; Jae-Hyuck Cho, piano; Hans Graf, conductor; Russian National Orchestra.
Alexander ARUTIUNIAN: Trumpet Concerto (cadenza by T. Dokshizer)
Mieczyslaw WEINBERG: Trumpet Concerto in B-Flat Major, Op. 94
Dmitry SHOSTAKOVICH: Piano Concerto No. 1 in C Minor, Op. 35 (with expanded trumpet part by T. Dokshizer and P. Merkelo)
Naxos 8.579117
Release Date: October 1, 2022
Duration: 61:16
 

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