ITG 2005

Neville Young, reporter

Paul Merkelo, principal trumpet of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, gave an exciting recital of trumpet works spanning three centuries. He began with Schedrin’s In the Style of Albeniz, very much delivering the promise of the title with a rousing start leading to passages contrasting spikiness with an almost sleazy warmth and flexibility. Turning to the piccolo trumpet Merkelo then delivered a stunning performance of the Leopold Mozart Concerto. It probably betrays my age (inter alia) if I admit that my reference recording of this concerto has long been Wilbraham on Argo, but Merkelo did much to convince me of the benefits of current practice with a fabulous clean tone and a deft, light, precise touch which was a joy to the ear. To my great satisfaction he also provided us with witty, clever ornamentation to enliven all those repeated quavers (eighth notes) in the second movement: you know the ones I mean. I am not throwing out my Wilbraham, but this was good stuff.

In introducing Enescu’s Legend Merkelo praised its “brilliant writing and many different colour changes” and went on to show us what he meant, making the most of its lyricism and strong, dramatic statements. After some effortless triple-tonguing and beautiful rapid slurred passage work we ended with a silky-smooth cup-muted passage, providing a magical tone even when down real low. Carl Hohne’s Slavische Fantasie ended the first half of the recital, one of its most striking moments being an extended cadenza featuring moments of very gentle yet very precise playing which really were most effective.

At the beginning of the second half Paul Merkelo explained what an important influence the late Timofei Dokshizer had been for him: Merkelo is himself of Ukrainian ancestry and the first trumpet record he ever owned was by Dokshizer. He went on to explain that the second half was dedicated to Dokshizer’s memory, and that every piece in it would have some connection – this began immediately with James Stephenson’s very fine Fantasie – with homage and respect to an inspiring artist, Timofei Dokshizer, which offered us a selection of great melodies and moods (did I detect a Tchaikovsky Moment?), an impressive, operatic cadenza, and a spectacular rapid-tongued ending which left the audience breathless, but the soloist perfectly calm.

Next we heard a Dokshizer arrangement of the Bach choral prelude Nun komm’ der heiden Heiland – a simple, soulful performance in which I was very struck by Merkelo’s tone. This in the quiet moments was beautifully restrained, covered, non-brassy and perhaps almost cornetto-ish, yet opening out at the climaxes into a huge, broad sound which filled the hall in a magnificent way. This very poised performance was a special high point of the recital for me. Merkelo continued with his last piece, another “phenomenal” Dokshizer arrangement, this one in sharp contrast – Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue. This arrangement did full justice to the original work and was, in turn, done great justice to by Merkelo’s thrilling performance, tracking the incredible changes of mood and approach and then adding some moments of surprise and complexity: if like me you thought you knew this work, you need to hear this arrangement, preferably played by this player. This pretty much brought the house down so without pausing for breath (ours, not his) Merkelo, who seems to have entirely boundless energy, threw in a encore – also a Dokshizer-related piece for him – performing Rimsky-Korsakov’s Flight of the Bumble Bee with such verve and velocity that it still makes my eyes water to contemplate it. After that I think the ceiling really must have fallen in and I remember nothing till coming back to my senses over lunch, with a smile of pure happiness on my face. This was a really exceptional recital with great tone, agility, atmosphere and warmth: thank you, Merkelo and Wilt!