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Artist: Paul Merkelo
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Paul Merkelo:

ARUTIUNIAN-SHOSTAKOVICH-WEINBERG Trumpet Concertos

The three works featured on this recording each has a connection with the trumpeter Timofei Dokshizer. Born in Nizhyn (in the Chernihiv region, now Ukraine) on 13 December 1921, he commenced his concert activity on All-Union Radio when barely 20, and then, in 1947, gained first prize at a competition in Prague. Although he enjoyed a notable career as soloist, he was also for many years principal trumpeter with the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, from which his distinctive tone can be heard on many commercial and archival recordings of the operatic and ballet repertoire. He pursued a distinguished academic career, being professor at the Gnessin Academy of Music in Moscow for a quarter-century and giving classes at the International Trumpet Academy in Bremen throughout the 1990s. He died in Vilnius on 16 March 2005, having done much to expand both the solo and the concertante repertoire for his instrument.

Although its repertoire is limited by comparison with other woodwind and brass instruments, the trumpet has had numerous concertos written for it from composers of the Soviet era and beyond. Much of the motivation in this must lie with Dokshizer, who not only commissioned and premiered a succession of such pieces but also made a notable number of recordings (not least of the two ‘original’ concertos found here) on which his distinctive style of playing can be said to have established the interpretative parameters for those who followed in his wake.
 

Paul Merkelo:

The Enlightened Trumpet, with Oxford Philharmonic

Recognized among the finest trumpet virtuosos of his generation, Paul Merkelo releases The Enlightened Trumpet, his first recording for Sony Classical. Hailed as "a spectacular soloist ... a most impressive master of his instrument" (Montreal Gazette) who "knows no limits" (Der Spiegel) and with "unusual lyrical gifts" (Gramophone), Merkelo has been Principal trumpet with the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal since 1995, and has appeared as soloist with prestigious orchestras around the globe, from Melbourne to Shanghai. In The Enlightened Trumpet, Merkelo is joined by the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra and its founder and conductor Marios Papadopoulos for four spectacular concertos by Haydn, Leopold Mozart, Telemann, and Hummel.