Orion Weiss - J.S.Bach, Scriabin, Mozart, Carter (Yarlung Records 20th Anniversary Edition) (2025)

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)

TRACKLIST

1. Orion Weiss - Bach: French Overture for Keyboard in B Minor, BWV 831: I. Overture
2. Orion Weiss - Bach: French Overture for Keyboard in B Minor, BWV 831: II. Courante
3. Orion Weiss - Bach: French Overture for Keyboard in B Minor, BWV 831: III. Gavotte I & II
4. Orion Weiss - Bach: French Overture for Keyboard in B Minor, BWV 831: IV. Passepied I & II
5. Orion Weiss - Bach: French Overture for Keyboard in B Minor, BWV 831: V. Sarabande
6. Orion Weiss - Bach: French Overture for Keyboard in B Minor, BWV 831: VI. Bourrée
7. Orion Weiss - Bach: French Overture for Keyboard in B Minor, BWV 831: VII. Gigue
8. Orion Weiss - Bach: French Overture for Keyboard in B Minor, BWV 831: VIII. Echo
9. Orion Weiss - Scriabin: Piano Sonata No. 5, Op. 53
10. Orion Weiss - Mozart: 6 Variations on "Salve tu Domine", K. 398/416e
11. Orion Weiss - Carter: Piano Sonata: I. Maestoso
12. Orion Weiss - Carter: Piano Sonata: II. Andante