by Mike Telin

Cleveland Orchestra principal trumpet Michael Sachs plays the Neruda Trumpet Concerto this weekend with the Cleveland Orchestra (April 29-May 2). We reached him at his home in Cleveland to talk about the concerts.

Mike Telin: Thank you so much for taking the time to talk, I think this is going to be an exciting concert. I am wondering why you chose to perform the Neruda concerto?

Michael Sachs: Outside of the trumpet world it is not that well known of a piece. But it is a piece that is kind of in the vein of both the Haydn and Hummel concertos. It is a piece that I have been playing for a while, and I have often performed it in recital with piano and with organ. I have also recorded it with Todd Wilson at the organ, in recital about five years ago.

MT: Yes and I understand that you will be signing copies of the recording at the Cleveland Orchestra store following this week’s concerts?

MS: Yes I will, and I believe it will be after all of the concerts except for the Friday concert, because the Fridays @ 7 has the special things happening after the concert with Jamey Haddad and his guest artists. So I believe it will be on Thursday, Saturday and Sunday.

MT: I was doing a little reading about the Neruda concerto, and I discovered that it was originally written for Corno de Caccia, have you ever performed it on that instrument?

MS: I have not, but the Corno de Caccia is an interesting instrument, I don’t know if you have seen a picture of it, but it kind of looks like a small-coiled horn very similar to a posthorn, which is what I would use for the offstage solo in Mahler’s 3rd symphony. [Read more…]