Description
Executive Producer: Elliot Midwood
It is a rare treat when a music writer and critic twists a producer’s arm to re-release an early album in a record label’s catalog. David Fung’s Evening Conversations put Yarlung Records on the audiophile map, and it was last released in 2012. Music critic Rush Paul was the friendly arm-twister in our case, and encouraged us to release a fresh mastering of Evening Conversations in honor of Yarlung’s 20th Anniversary. What a treat it was to revisit the original takes and bring them to life in high res PCM and 256fs DSD with equipment Yarlung didn’t have at the time of the original recording. Not only did we not have the fabulous Merging Technologies Hapi to record the actual DSD files then, but we have since refined and developed new equipment such as Arian Jansen’s SHI18 (in the analog domain) to refine the soundstage and make a good recording better.
Elliot Midwood, frequent executive producer and one of the principal equipment designers at Yarlung, offered to underwrite some of these 20th Anniversary releases. We begin with David Fung’s now iconic Evening Conversations, an album for solo piano recorded in Zipper Hall at Colburn School, where I am setting up tomorrow to record Quartet Integra. Stay tuned for that one! We are recording Beethoven, Ligeti and Lefkowitz. Zipper has wonderful acoustics, as I think you will hear in Evening Conversations, and Yarlung has recorded about 12 albums there to date.
Prior Yarlung board member Larry Davanzo served as our valiant executive producer for the compact disc of Evening Conversations many years ago, an album which continues to be a best seller, even in this era of dwindling interest in digital physical media.
Arian Jansen, Elliot Midwood and Steve Hoffman worked with me to remaster this album. In his longer article for our album booklet, Rush gives us a taste of the mischief he engendered with this special 20th Anniversary release:
“This new DSD256 transfer is a magical listening experience. If you’ve only heard the CD release, you have not heard these performances. These are the master tapes heard in as pure a sound as we can ever expect—no post processing, no compression, no messing about with frequency balance. As Dr. David Robinson (founder of Positive Feedback) and I have said before, the sound of a Pure DSD256 transfer (made with good equipment as used here) is indistinguishable to our ears from the analog tape source. DSD256 sound quality is simply that good.
“David Fung is extraordinary—his playing soars on wings of the greatest delicacy, nuance, insight, and emotion. He combines a refined elegance with intensely poetic and expressive nuance. The clarity with which he navigates passages is breathtakingly liberating. Listening after all these years, I am once again awestruck by the musicianship, the intelligence, the technical excellence of these performances.”
As is often the case with Yarlung albums, we invited a small very quiet audience to join us for parts of these sessions, so David was in fact performing for living enthusiastic people, not just me on stage with our recording equipment, smiling and encouraging him. 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, David and I spent many 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 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.
–Bob Attiyeh, producer
Soundcloud
Rush Paul –
A Rare Musical Experience with Pianist David Fung
I found myself talking recently on the phone with my friend Bob Attiyeh, the creative founder and visionary of Yarlung Records. I’m always intrigued by these occasional calls with Bob. One never knows whence they may wander. That day, Bob was filled with excitement. “Do you recall our conversation a year ago about reissuing some of Yarlung’s early recordings in high resolution digital? You encouraged me to do it, and we’re now about to release the original recording with David Fung that put Yarlung Records on the map. Would you like to hear an advance copy? More importantly, would you be willing to write something about it?”
Well, yes—I do recall, I said immediately. Bob was concerned there would be no market for a full album release when they’d included portions in various samplers over the years. He didn’t want to abuse music listeners who have supported Yarlung. “Balderdash!” said I. “You need to do this. I’m sure more folks than I have left behind our vinyl collections and are now digital dependent. I can think of nothing finer that re-releases in Pure DSD256 and other high res digital formats from your 15ips analog master tapes and prior high resolution releases.”
And, by golly, Bob has done it. His first offering is a GLORIOUS Pure DSD256 transfer from the original 15ips analog master tape of an album I treasured when it came out on CD. This is the translucent, transcendent, utterly magnificent recording of David Fung’s solo piano recital recorded by Bob and the Yarlung team in 2006.
This new DSD256 transfer is a magical listening experience. If you’ve only heard the CD release, you have not heard these performances. These are the master tapes heard in as pure a sound as we can ever expect—no post processing, no compression, no messing about with frequency balance. As Dr. David Robinson (founder of Positive Feedback) and I have said before, the sound of a Pure DSD256 transfer (made with good equipment as used here) is indistinguishable to our ears from the analog tape source. DSD256 sound quality is simply that good.
David Fung is extraordinary—his playing soars on wings of the greatest delicacy, nuance, insight, and emotion. He combines a refined elegance with intensely poetic and expressive nuance. The clarity with which he navigates passages is breathtakingly liberating. Listening after all these years, I am once again awestruck by the musicianship, the intelligence, the technical excellence of these performances.
And the musical selections! They are just marvelous. This is a bold recital of demanding and diverse works. There is nothing trite or over-performed here. No pablum. Even when he includes well known repertoire, David Fung’s approach is fresh, insightful, deliciously innovative. And superbly well played. Did I say this before? Well, I’ll say it again. The playing here transports me. It delights me, it keeps me engaged, wanting more, and coming back to listen again.
At the time of the original release of this album, it was highly praised by both the music critic press and by the audiophile press. James Harrington writing in The American Record Guide said, “I shall return to this recording many, many times and will watch for future releases from this talented artist.” Gary Lemco writing for Audiophile Audition said, “For me, the recital’s variety and breadth of palette rivals the kind of pianistic spectrum the late Shura Cherkassky would champion… Pearly eroticism infiltrates Chopin’s Nocturne in C-sharp Minor… Anyone familiar with the film classic The Pianist will embrace this performance as authentic. Fung has an immediate grasp of the large gestures in Rachmaninoff as well as his tender rhetoric.”
David was just 23 when he recorded these performances—what a prodigy. As clear an example of youth knowing no fear as any I’ve known among musicians.
This is one of three albums David recorded with Yarlung. An earlier album, The Piano, focused on Liszt and Ravel, with an excellent concluding performance of Bach’s Prelude and Fugue in B-flat minor, BWV 891. And a following duo album, Dialoghi, with the inimitable Ms. Elinor Frey on cello, for which we have only half of the album re-issued. I implore Bob to re-release Dialoghi it in its entirety. The Lefkowitz, Lutoslawski, Mayuzumi, and Saariaho works are keenly missed around here.
I’m guessing there are other analog tape marvels still in the Yarlung vaults awaiting similar DSD256 releases. I hope Bob will find a way to continue with these.
Graduating from school in Australia, David Fung moved to America in 2003 to study at the Colburn School in Los Angeles. It was at Colburn School, in Zipper Hall where this album was recorded, that Bob first heard David perform in concert. David recorded these performances during his final year at Colburn, before earning his Master’s and Doctorate degrees at Yale. Today he regularly performs as a soloist with many of the great ensembles, including the Cleveland Orchestra, the Detroit Symphony, the Israel Philharmonic, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the San Francisco Symphony, Orpheus, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestras, and the Orchestra of St. Luke’s.
David lives in Vancouver and New York City, where he serves on the faculties of the Manhattan School of Music and the University of British Columbia. In Canada, he also serves as a curator at the Chan Center for the Performing Arts in Vancouver. He is a Steinway Artist and has released two albums with Steinway and Sons Label.
This new release earns my highest and most enthusiastic recommendation. If you have any affinity for classical piano, this recording should be at the top of your “to purchase next” list of recordings. Many thanks to Bob Attiyeh for giving us this excellent release to enjoy.
–Rushton Paul, writing for Positive Feedback here shared thanks to generous permission from the publisher, Dr. David W. Robinson
Bob Attiyeh –
I was happily reminded, reading Rush Paul’s fabulous article about Evening Conversations, and his affinity for 256fsDSD, that it was his publisher, David Robinson, who first suggested (nay, cajoled) Yarlung to transfer some of our recordings on analog tape to DSD. This was in the infancy of 256fsDSD, which David nicknamed “Quad DSD.” Thanks to David’s loan of his new DAC, the HAPI from Merging Technologies, we swiftly released about 20 albums from our tape archives. Yarlung was soon surpassed by larger labels of course, but for a brief period Yarlung had more titles available in 256fsDSD than any other label in the world. Fun! Many thanks, David, and Rush, for your support of our musical endeavors in support of world-class musicians like David Fung.