J.S.Bach, Scriabin, Mozart, Carter (Yarlung Records 20th Anniversary Edition) Orion Weiss

• Johann Sebastian Bach (1685 - 1750): French Overture for Keyboard in B Minor, BWV 831:
• 1 Bach: French Overture for Keyboard in B Minor, BWV 831: I. Overture 07:40
• 2 Bach: French Overture for Keyboard in B Minor, BWV 831: II. Courante 02:03
• 3 Bach: French Overture for Keyboard in B Minor, BWV 831: III. Gavotte I & II 03:41
• 4 Bach: French Overture for Keyboard in B Minor, BWV 831: IV. Passepied I & II 02:48
• 5 Bach: French Overture for Keyboard in B Minor, BWV 831: V. Sarabande 04:08
• 6 Bach: French Overture for Keyboard in B Minor, BWV 831: VI. Bourrée 02:26
• 7 Bach: French Overture for Keyboard in B Minor, BWV 831: VII. Gigue 02:50
• 8 Bach: French Overture for Keyboard in B Minor, BWV 831: VIII. Echo 02:56
• Alexander Scriabin (1872 - 1915): Piano Sonata No. 5, Op. 53:
• 9 Scriabin: Piano Sonata No. 5, Op. 53 12:37
• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756 - 1791): 6 Variations on "Salve tu Domine", K. 398/416e:
• 10 Mozart: 6 Variations on "Salve tu Domine", K. 398/416e 07:10
• Elliott Carter (1908 - 2012): Piano Sonata:
• 11 Carter: Piano Sonata: I. Maestoso 11:08
• 12 Carter: Piano Sonata: II. Andante 14:48
• Total Runtime 01:14:15

Info for J.S.Bach, Scriabin, Mozart, Carter (Yarlung Records 20th Anniversary Edition)

Not often can listening to a recording match the excitement and transcendent power of a live performance. We in the recording business try our best to get as close as possible to the real thing of course. Sometimes, however, magic happens listening to a recording with the right people in the right environment. This occurred in the Rockport/Absolare room at the 2024 Munich High End Show listening to J. S. Bach’s “French Overture” performed on piano by Orion Weiss. It takes a great performer, a recording that “doesn’t get in the way,” and fabulous playback equipment such as we had in the Rockport room for these wondrous listening experiences. The audience sat enraptured by Orion’s subtlety and artistry and we indeed felt like we were sitting on stage with Orion in Zipper Hall at The Colburn School where we made this album.

As is often the case with Yarlung albums, we invited a small very quiet audience to join us for these sessions, so Orion was in fact performing for living enthusiastic people, not just me on stage with our recording equipment, smiling and encouraging him. Our Munich guests felt this connection, and re-experienced that live event. Rockport’s Josh Clark and Jon Zimmer sat rapt, listening to Orion at the keyboard, happy to enjoy the musical oasis Orion’s playing granted them during a week full of intense business meetings, marketing and jetlag.

The ambiance in these Yarlung albums comes from the concert hall itself—from the air in the hall, the wood on the walls, and so forth. We add no reverb in mastering. In this case, Orion and I spent seven hours setting the two microphones, making many adjustments, half-centimeter at a time, driving quickly back and forth to check these changes with Elliot Midwood at Acoustic Image in Studio City, until we felt the sound was “just right.” Elliot was there with us in the Rockport room in Munich to enjoy the results of our efforts. For this recording we used two Neumann U47 microphones, our customized vacuum tube microphone preamplifiers, short (five feet) stranded Yarlung Audio silver interconnects, no mixer, and recorded directly to two tracks.

My friend and listening buddy Don Saltzman (known to the wider audiophile world as one of the insightful equipment reviewers for The Absolute Sound) asked how he could help celebrate Yarlung’s 20th Anniversary by supporting a special release. After the Munich success, and after listening to this album together, Don chose Orion to support as executive producer in honor of the label’s 20th Anniversary.

In addition to appreciating Orion and Don for their outstanding contributions to the art form, we also want to thank Steinway & Sons (New York) and especially David Ida in Los Angeles for making available Steinway C&A 599 for this recording in Zipper Hall at Colburn School.

Audiophile music critic and writer Rush Paul called me and told me what a great idea it would be to re-release some of Yarlung’s earlier albums in high res. Yarlung’s 20th Anniversary gives us the perfect excuse to look back a bit and celebrate some of our earlier outstanding musicians and their successes. We begin with a small group, including Orion, which helped put Yarlung on the international audiophile map in its original 24 karat gold compact disc.

Scriabin’s fiery fifth sonata showcases Orion’s dynamism and delicacy as well as his ability to produce a breathtakingly broad range of warm, mid-keyboard colors contained within this impressionistic piece that ends as furiously (and explosively) as it begins.

…the recording compellingly communicates every deft keyboard stroke of a young virtuoso…

…if your system can handle the piano’s prodigious low frequency energy and intense dynamics, you will be presented with a realistic rendering of a piano in all of its sonic and physical glory…. - Michael Fremer

Here, the miking is direct and simple: two matched Neumann U-47 microphones, short cabling, directly into the tape recorder. Microphone placement was determined by ear, experimenting with position changes a half-centimeter at a time over seven hours of placement testing. And no EQ adjustments, no compression, and no post processing. All of the EQ and balance decisions were determined by the microphone placement, not by twiddling dials afterwards.

This is a great release. Well done! This album comes with my highest recommendations for excellence of music selection, performance, and sound quality. About Orion’s Piano Sonata by Elliot Carter: “I know several good recordings of this durable work, but the most recent and liveliest is this one made… by the up-and-coming Cleveland pianist Orion Weiss.” - Jay Harvey, Indianapolis Star

“Weiss’ phrases had more happening in them than other pianists do in an entire piece. He showed color and sensitivity, clarity and evenness of technique, and a dynamic level that was more the range found on a fortepiano.” - Geraldine Freedman, The Daily Gazette

Orion Weiss combines exacting perfectionism with genuine affability and Midwestern charm. Orion offers high voltage electricity as a performer, linked with intellectual and musical maturity as a poet at the keyboard. In his writing Michael Fremer compares Orion Weiss to Gustavo Dudamel. Indeed we are fortunate; this appears to be the beginning of another musical golden era, in which young and extremely talented musicians enrich our enjoyment of the nuances in concert music by bringing fresh vitality to seasoned masterpieces and new compositions alike. (Bob Attiyeh, producer)

Orion Weiss, piano

Orion Weiss
One of the most sought-after soloists in his generation of young American musicians, the pianist Orion Weiss has performed with the major American orchestras, including the Chicago Symphony, Boston Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, and New York Philharmonic. His deeply felt and exceptionally crafted performances go far beyond his technical mastery and have won him worldwide acclaim. With a warmth to his playing that reflects his personality, Orion has performed with dozens of orchestras in North America and has dazzled audiences with his passionate, lush sound.

Recent seasons have seen Weiss in performances for the Lucerne Festival, the Denver Friends of Chamber Music, the University of Iowa, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center’s Fortas Series, the 92nd Street Y, and the Broad Stage, and at Aspen, Bard, and Grand Teton summer festivals. Other highlights include his third performance with the Chicago Symphony, a performance of Beethoven's Triple Concerto with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, the release of his recording of Christopher Rouse’s Seeing, and recordings of the complete Gershwin works for piano and orchestra with his longtime collaborators the Buffalo Philharmonic and JoAnn Falletta.

Named the Classical Recording Foundation’s Young Artist of the Year in September 2010, in the summer of 2011 Weiss made his debut with the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Tanglewood as a last-minute replacement for Leon Fleisher. In recent seasons, he has also performed with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, Pittsburgh Symphony, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, National Arts Centre Orchestra, and Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, and in duo summer concerts with the New York Philharmonic at both Lincoln Center and the Bravo! Vail Valley Festival. In 2005, he toured Israel with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Itzhak Perlman.

Also known for his affinity and enthusiasm for chamber music, Weiss performs regularly with the violinists Augustin Hadelich, William Hagen, Benjamin Beilman, James Ehnes, and Arnaud Sussman; the pianist Shai Wosner; the cellist Julie Albers; and the Ariel, Parker, and Pacifica Quartets. As a recitalist and chamber musician, Weiss has appeared across the U.S. at venues and festivals including Lincoln Center, the Ravinia Festival, Sheldon Concert Hall, the Seattle Chamber Music Festival, La Jolla Music Society SummerFest, Chamber Music Northwest, the Bard Music Festival, the Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival, the Kennedy Center, and Spivey Hall. He won the 2005 William Petschek Recital Award at Juilliard and made his New York recital debut at Alice Tully Hall that April. Also in 2005, he made his European debut in a recital at the Musée du Louvre in Paris. He was a member of the Chamber Music Society Two program of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center from 2002-2004, which included his appearance in the opening concert of the Society’s 2002-2003 season at Alice Tully Hall performing Ravel’s La Valse with Shai Wosner.

Weiss’s impressive list of awards includes the Gilmore Young Artist Award, an Avery Fisher Career Grant, the Gina Bachauer Scholarship at the Juilliard School, and the Mieczyslaw Munz Scholarship. A native of Lyndhurst, OH, Weiss attended the Cleveland Institute of Music, where he studied with Paul Schenly, Daniel Shapiro, Sergei Babayan, Kathryn Brown, and Edith Reed. In February of 1999, Weiss made his Cleveland Orchestra debut performing Liszt’s Piano Concerto No. 1. In March 1999, with less than 24 hours’ notice, Weiss stepped in to replace André Watts for a performance of Shostakovich’s Piano Concerto No. 2 with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. He was immediately invited to return to the Orchestra for a performance of the Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto in October 1999. In 2004, he graduated from the Juilliard School, where he studied with Emanuel Ax.

Booklet for J.S.Bach, Scriabin, Mozart, Carter (Yarlung Records 20th Anniversary Edition)