Pacho Flores

Friday, March 22. 2024

OoOOooOOooOooOOoO! That guy is a good trumpet player. He played with the MN Orchestra tonight. We sat in the third row and it was perfect. We were about 12 feet away, looking across the open aisle at him. He played six different trumpets (Bb, Eb, C, D, cornet, and flugelhorn) (Keith was really puzzled about “cornet”. It might have been a G cornet, because it had a shepherd’s crook, but it was really different looking–some type of piccolo trumpet–and he couldn’t quite place it. We were close. There was a lot of looking. [edit Keith: I looked it up a few minutes ago and it was indeed a G [piccolo] cornet.])

He played two pieces. Zigeunerweisen (Gypsy Airs) for Trumpet and Orchestra by Sarasate (Bb and Eb trumpets). It was really, really nice. He is a great player – Keith kept saying his endurance was superhuman because he never got to take the horn away from his face – then he played the next piece! Marquez’ Concierto de Otoño for Trumpet and Orchestra (C and D trumpets, cornet, flugel). The second piece was a little showier, and we got to sing during his cadenza – but I think I liked the first one better.

It was a complete delight.

Extra from Keith: I was well aware of Pacho as an amazing player well before this concert (which is why we had close seats, so that I could see him in action and hear his sound close up). He did not disappoint. His performance was nearly flawless, and he played two long and very difficult pieces entirely from memory (which I always appreciate). But, like she said above, the most amazing part was his practically inhuman endurance. As a trumpet player, you simply need to get the horn away from your face now and then, yet that didn’t seem to be a thing for him. Usually you can hear the effect of too much playing and not enough rest in even the best players, but he was either unaffected by fatigue or really does a great job of hiding his pain and not letting it affect a beautiful tone. All of Pacho’s instruments had four valves, giving him an extended low range and he used it to great effect on all of the horns, but especially on the flugelhorn.