Orion Weiss Orion 180g 45rpm LP

Executive Producer: Jim Mulally

"Orion Weiss combines exacting perfectionism with genuine affability and Midwestern charm; his combination of personality traits makes him a producer's dream. And these traits, plus his ability as a pianist, win him a great number of friends and admirers, onstage and off. Orion offers high voltage electricity as a performer, linked with intellectual and musical maturity as a poet at the keyboard.

"Orion arrived energized for our concert and recording sessions September 1-4, 2007 in Zipper Hall at Colburn School in Los Angeles, despite his return some days earlier from an extended concert tour in China and Japan. Following our sessions, Orion then spent tireless hours at home, on airplanes and between concerts working through our many takes of each movement to help us choose the most appropriate one. Interestingly, and perhaps not surprisingly, many of these choices settled on takes Orion performed live in our Yarlung Artists concert. Bach's Overture, for example, the opening notes on this disc, is our first take, the first morning of our recording session.

"It gave me great pleasure to share this recording during several presentations in the Rockport Technologies/Absolare room at the Munich High End Show in 2024. Once again, Orion, his spectacular Steinway and Zipper Hall's natural acoustics delighted the ear. All the ambiance in these recordings comes from the concert hall itself-from the air in the hall, the wood on the walls, and so forth. We added no reverb in mastering. 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.' For this recording we used short (five feet) stranded Yarlung Audio silver interconnects, our customized vacuum tube microphone preamplifiers, no mixer, and recorded directly to two tracks.

"We begin this album with J. S. Bach. Bach searched for perfection in all of his music: perfection reflecting the glory of God and creation, reflecting the golden ratios in nature, and revealing unity and completion. Bach's 'French Overture' takes performer and audience on an epic and wide-ranging musical and emotional journey. And Bach manages to transport us these distances without ever moving far from his home key.

"Mozart's variations on 'Salve tu Domine,' a theme from Paisiello's opera I filosofi immaginarii, share a roundness and return of earlier material and Mozart's coda revisits the theme's original texture.

"We want to thank our friend and steadfast executive producer Jim Mulally for underwriting this vinyl release in honor of Orion Weiss and in honor of Yarlung's 20th Anniversary. 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 and for our live concert."

—Bob Attiyeh, producer

…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….