Jung-A Lee "A Private Organ Recital in Walt Disney Concert Hall, SH mastered, amazing sound! Yarlung

Bob
When you were recording, was there an organ tech on duty?
Last night at a Cameron Carpenter concert, the organ sprang a cypher and concert was stopped 8 bars, or so, into the show.
Just took possession of Ms Lee's disc today. Too bad you can't get space in the gift shoppe.

 

Good morning TeacFan! You were there! So was I, and I very much enjoyed the concert. For anyone in the Los Angeles area, there is a final performance today (11/18) at 2pm. Here is my review posted yesterday on Social Media:

We attended the world premiere performance of Christopher Cerrone's "The Insects Became Magnetic" last night at the LA Phil in Walt Disney Concert Hall, commissioned by Yarlung board member Justus Schlichting and his wife Helen. Another Triumph. J and Helen have a shockingly superb "batting average" with the composers whose creativity they support, and "Insects" is no exception. The Los Angeles Philharmonic clearly loves this piece, challenging as it is, and the ensemble was conducted by Roderick Cox, an excellent young conductor whom the LA Phil's Simon Woods had hired to conduct the Seattle Symphony a few years ago. Go hear this concert if you can. There is another performance on Sunday at 2pm.

Filling the seats were the two longer works on the program, Poulenc's Organ concerto and Saint-Saens' Symphony #3 with the hugely energetic yet subtle and always musical Cameron Carpenter on the organ. He had a momentary organ software glitch at the start of the Poulenc which meant he treated the audience to an extraordinary "organ stress test" before beginning the Poulenc again. I only hope for Sunday's audience that the organ suffers the same momentary malfunction.

This is the same princely organ and same hall where Yarlung recorded Jung-a Lee's organ album earlier this year. It was a treat to be back in this space and hear another master at the keyboard. Do go if you can on Sunday. I wish we were available to attend a second time. --Bob Attiyeh

Cameron Carpenter Plays Poulenc and Saint-Saëns | LA Phil | Walt Disney Concert Hall

To answer your question directly, TeacFan, Manuel Rosales, the organ builder, worked with us a great deal in advance of this recording. He always keeps the organ in good shape, but he and Jung-A are friends, and he suspected this would become an important album for organ repertoire, for Walt Disney Concert Hall, and for his legacy as well as Jung-A's. We did have one similar software glitch during our prep for Jung-A's recording and concert when we accidentally flipped a tiny switch under the manuals at one point. Jung-A had spent three weeks perfecting her registration and stop choices, and this was all in the organ computer's memory. (Parenthetically, 100 years ago, Jung-A would have needed four assistants, two on each side, to perform repertoire this complex with the number of subtle stop and registration changes. In 2018, I was able to help (using the computer memory) and push an occasional button (if all Jung-A's fingers were busy playing) which then activated the next stop and registration positions.)

I was sitting fairly close to Cameron on Friday evening, and I wasn't paying particular attention when they moved the organ onto the stage, but that little switch could inadvertently been flipped. The computer (which sits behind the organ pipes in a special room) would have needed to reboot at that point. Cameron indicated that the console read out said it was "updating," so I guess this is what happened. I must confess the audience had a lot more fun and were able to witness this "stress test" display as a result.

So glad you were able to attend the concert. Please do let us know what you think of Jung-A's CD!

The CD is available in the Walt Disney Concert Hall shop, by the way. They love it, and it is possible that it sold out yet again. We will always have stock for you at yarlungrecords.com, but the WDCH shop will also continue to carry the CD.

A happy rest of the weekend to you, and Happy upcoming Thanksgiving,

Bob

 

Steve -

Thank you for beginning this recording and yarlung records to our attention. Bad on this thread I ordered 3 discs.

The praise posted by you and others is very much deserved for both the superb audio quality and the performances, especially by Jung-A Lee. I have long ago purchased all of the demo and catalog organ recordings - and forgotten almost as many, as they are simply recordings that are flashy and not worth another listen.

Jung-A's performance is wonderful. She has the ability and subtlety to make the organ an instrument worth listening to. The production by Jim Mulally is just as impressive in revealing qualities of the organ that are usually lost.

Bob Attiyeh merits support - those with any interest in organ recordings, excellent music, wonderful recordings and/or small labels should investigate and support the Yarlung catalog.

Highly recommended. Thanks again for the suggestion.

 

In the 1st paragraph -
"beginning" was supposed to be "bringing"
"Bad" was supposed to be "Based"

Autocorrect is almost evil sometimes.

 

ivtoon, thanks so much for your message, whether you use auto correct or not! I'm so glad you enjoy this music and Jung-A's performance.

As it so happens, we released the analog tape version of Jung-A's masterpiece on Thanksgiving Day. Here is the general notice and Thanksgiving email in case any of you are fans of Steve Hoffman's favorite medium. We'll maybe he likes vinyl as much. I certainly do.

Thanks so much for your enthusiasm, ivtoon.