Tag: Sibelius Piano Trio

Maria Tsakiri’s Yarlung article in “Yellowbox”

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Yellowbox Editor in Chief Theodore Bafaloukas and Staff Reporter Maria Tsakiri reached out to me in 2020 to write an article about Yarlung and our upcoming anniversary. We communicated in English, but to read the original article in Greek, please click on the magazine cover image above. What follows is an English approximation of the topics we discussed (hyperlinks added by me after the fact). Hope you enjoy! Many thanks to the musicians, board members, volunteers and companies that make our work possible. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. Yellowbox is a premium bi-monthly subscription-based Audio, Video, Home Entertainment and Music magazine published in Athens. –Bob Attiyeh, producer YARLUNG RECORDS IS A SMALL, INDEPENDENT RECORD LABEL FROM THE USA, BRAINCHILD OF A VISIONARY AND REMARKABLE MAN, WHO HAS BEEN RESPECTFULLY ADMITTING FOR 15 YEARS THAT THE HIGH QUALITY OF THE LABEL’S RECORDINGS RESULTS FROM A TRUE TEAM EFFORT. Continue Reading →

Jacob Heilbrunn, Stephen Estep and Michael Johnson wax poetic about “Korppoo Trio” in The Spectator, The Absolute Sound and Analog Planet

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Executive Producer Jim Mulally’s 180 GRAM 45RPM release of Sibelius Piano Trio’s western hemisphere premiere performance of Sibelius’ Korppoo Trio excited audiophile listeners and writers around the world. Michael Leser Johnson reviews Korppoo Trio in Analog Planet, Stephen Estep writes about the release in The Absolute Sound, and Jacob Heilbrunn covers the pressing and more in The Spectator. From The Spectator: The Sibelius Piano Trio’s live concert, featuring Petteri Iivonen on violin, Juho Pohjonen on piano and Samuli Peltonen on cello, is a treat to hear. For one thing, Yarlung Records, which always goes to great lengths to ensure high recording quality, down to the microphone amplification and tape machines it employs, has produced another sonically stellar LP. The individual instruments are almost perfectly balanced and the timbral fidelity is impeccable. The pleasure that Sibelius must have had in playing with his siblings on a work that he himself had composed Continue Reading →

“Fire & Fancy,” the new LP from Sibelius Piano Trio

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Michael Leser Johnson reviews Fire & Fancy in Analog Planet …Both sides of this record are a tour de force…. All the little details such as note decay, string bite, pizzicato tone, piano weight, are all here in spades. “Nene” by Diego Schicci takes the listener through four themed movements: I. Jumping on the Walls, II. Dozing on a Hanger, III. Riding a mosquito, and IV. Oozing Away. The compositional style is assuredly tonal, but with enough modern thematic elements to appear new and refreshing. The perpetual motion of the first movement; ‘Jumping on the Walls’, as well as mvmt 4 ‘Riding a Mosquito’, is masterfully played by the trio, particularly in the frantic and seemingly random string ostinato that weave in and out of the texture. On another note, I was very impressed by the depth of the recorded Steinway piano tone, which is almost always frustratingly difficult to Continue Reading →

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Catching up with Bob Attiyeh in The Absolute Sound

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Yarlung Records Catching Up With Bob Attiyeh Jeff Wilson Much has been made of the vinyl resurgence that began a little over a decade ago, but that was really part of something larger that had already started brewing.  Suddenly new audiophile labels were popping up that switched or added formats as tastes changed and new technology became available. When Yarlung Records released its first album in 2005, it was definitely ahead of the curve, and for a small, hands-on label, Yarlung quickly achieved an outsized presence, with both GRAMMY® nominations and awards and a large international audience.  Recently, we interviewed the Executive Director of Yarlung, Bob Attiyeh, whose passion for music and insight into the record process have served the label well.  The lockdown has thrown a curveball into the music industry, and I’m curious how it affected you. Did you stay busy, or did everything grind to a halt? Continue Reading →

A Gorgeous Debut from the Sibelius Piano Trio

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…once you hear [The Sibelius Piano Trio’s debut album] from Yarlung Records, best appreciated via stereo and multi-channel DSD downloads from NativeDSD.com… you’ll understand why their debut recording of trios by Sibelius and contemporary composers deserves a place in your collection. [Pianist Juho Pohjonen] is distinguished by deep sensitivity and lucid insights. Like him, violinist Petteri Iivonen (b. 1987) and cellist Samuli Peltonen (b. 1981) have won top prizes in national and international competitions, and used them to launch international careers. IIvonen is actually famed Finish composer Kaija Saariaho’s violinist of choice for her Violin Concerto, which is saying quite a lot. Together, these three friends formed the Sibelius Piano Trio just two years ago. For a new ensemble that has only performed once in the U.S., and does not yet have a viable website, they’ve certainly racked up several impressive commissions. The discs contain three intriguing works written for Continue Reading →

Sibelius Piano Trio Yarlung (2 CDs)

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by composer and music critic Mark Lehman Though renowned for his symphonic works, Sibelius wrote a lot of chamber music too, much of it in his early career, that remains little known.  This includes several piano trios from the 1880s that the young composer (an accomplished violinist) wrote to play with his brother and sister.  They sound nothing like his mature masterpieces but are nevertheless charming, expertly made, and brimming over with dandy tunes, inventive but always idiomatic and transparent instrumental textures, and a youthful, high-spirited delight in music-making. Korppoo Trio is the most ambitious and expansive of the three Sibelius trios on Yarlung’s program, coming in at 26 minutes, its fluent, melodic opening allegro interrupted on occasion by stabbing, rather Beethovenian assertions and even a clean-lined fugato at one point, though the overall form is classic in outline and clear as a bell.  The second movement unfolds elaborate episodes that Continue Reading →

Executive Producers – Yarlung Records

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Sponsorship, philanthropy and guidance from underwriters have always been critical to the success of music and the performing arts.  The choragoi, wealthy citizens of Athens, helped produce and pay for classical performances in the 5th and 4th centuries BC.   Before them, the pharaohs sponsored the arts in ancient Egypt.  Lorenzo de Medici and his Renaissance family were not the first patrons of the arts in western culture, and as long as the arts flourish, it will be visionary people who finance them and make them possible. Countess Yoko Nagae Ceschina, “Fairy Godmother to the New York Philharmonic,” died last month.  I appreciated this loving tribute in the New York Times. It is our executive producers who sponsor and make music possible at Yarlung Records.  They are our fairy godmothers and fairy godfathers, our modern Medicis, who work with us and support our musicians every year. Please join our executive producers Continue Reading →