The Absolute Sound – Yarlung Records Makes A Splash

Yarlung Records Makes A Splash By Jeff Wilson   |  Aug 13th, 2014 Categories: Jazz, Classical One of the pleasures of experiencing a second golden age of audio is witnessing all the ways record labels keep evolving. Take, for example, Yarlung Records, a California- based company that, when it was launched in 2005, was just one more small label in the increasingly sink-or-swim music industry. Almost ten years later Yarlung remains, in the words of owner Bob Attiyeh (uh-TEA-yuh), “too small to fail,” yet its list of accomplishments points to the success a label can achieve when it combines carefully-chosen performances with superb-sounding recordings. Case in point: In 2010 Yarlung won a Grammy for Antonio Lysy at The Broad: Music from Argentina, a recording that also earned a spot on the list of top forty best-sounding recordings TAS compiled in Issue 234. A big part of Yarlung’s success comes from its Continue Reading →

Mahler Symphony No. 5 in C-sharp minor – Gerard Schwarz

CD | Amazon | iTunes | HDtracks | NativeDSD | SoundCloud | Mahler Symphony No. 5 in C-sharp minor. Gerard Schwarz, cond., The Colburn Orchestra.  YARLUNG 41014 (64:00) By any standard, this is a superlative Mahler Fifth; given that it’s a live performance by a student orchestra, it’s frankly jaw-dropping. Though less well known than Eastman, Juilliard, Curtis or the New England Conservatory, the Colburn School in downtown Los Angeles is one of America’s top-flight musical institutions– as may be gathered from the fact that it currently fields an orchestra every bit the equal of any of its venerable eastern rivals.  But then again, with the American Youth Symphony, the Young Musicians Foundation Debut Orchestra, the USC Thornton Symphony and the UCLA Philharmonia – several of which are more than capable of mopping the floor with the highly touted Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra – Los Angeles has a fair claim to Continue Reading →

Nigel Armstrong :: Voix des Arts, Joseph Newsome

Amazon iTunes Yarlung Records High Res 24 bit Voix des Arts, Joseph Newsome November 1st, 2014 CD REVIEW: Johann Sebastian Bach, Béla Bartók, & Erich Wolfgang Korngold – VIOLIN SONATAS & CONCERTO (Nigel Armstrong, violin; Yarlung Records 65007) JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH (1685 – 1750): Violin Sonata No. 3 in C major, BWV 1005; BÉLA BARTÓK (1881 – 1945): Sonata for Solo Violin, Sz. 117, BB 124; and ERICH WOLFGANG KORNGOLD (1897 – 1957): Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 35—Nigel Armstrong, violin; The Colburn Orchestra; Sir Neville Marriner, conductor [Recorded in performance in Royce Hall, UCLA, Los Angeles, California, USA, on 13 February 2011 (Korngold) and at the Brain and Creativity Institute’s Cammilleri Hall, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, 21 – 23 October 2013 (Bach, Bartók); Yarlung Records 65007; 1 CD, 67:29; Available from Amazon, ClassicsOnline, jpc, iTunes, Presto Classical, and major music retailers] Few decisions are more important to the Continue Reading →