Search - Bach, Ravel Liszt, David Fung (piano) :: The Piano: A Journey from Hubris to Humility

Yarlung Records recorded this American Debut Album for David Fung before his 2005 world concert tour. David won the International Klaviersommer Festival Competition in Germany in 2004, and also captured the People?s Choice Award. David combines keyboard fireworks with a mature and refined sensibility. He expresses personal tenderness and vulnerability in the introspective passages. David chose both virtuoso showpieces and works of ethereal simplicity. Few pianists do both so well. David reminds one of concert artists like Andras Schiff and Martha Argerich who also combine extraordinary pianistic display and musical subtlety. This recording reveals David?s extraordinary breadth of expression, from the ethereal and emotionally mature Bach Prelude and Fugue in B-flat minor (David is unafraid of the emotional detail and color that a modern concert grand piano can reveal in this piece) to the Four Hands La Valse, Ravel?s black, bitter and surreal response to World War One. Many of us know this work in its orchestral version. On our recording, David treats us to his own rendition of Ravel?s rarely performed transcription for solo piano, incorporating many sections from the Four Hands edition for two pianos, and adding additional material from the full orchestral score. This piece is rarely recorded by one pianist in any version: Glenn Gould?s simplified transcription is a notable exception. David?s technical and emotional scope as a pianist captures the full range of hubris (or outrage and arrogance) and surrender and humility, contained in this program. We used the legendary AKG C-24 microphone, with its original tube in good condition. To achieve the greatest possible transparency, to capture the sound and decay correctly, and to preserve the natural soundstage, this album was recorded in only two tracks, using equipment and cables designed or reengineered specifically for Yarlung Records. For this digital pressing, we used HDCD encoding, to preserve 20-Bit resolution on playback. This CD will play normally on most recent CD players, even those not equipped for full HDCD playback. Mastered by Steve Hoffman.