Various Composers - Sketches of China (Xuefei Yang)

Information

CD1

1. Renchang Fu - A Lovely Rose (arr. Renchang Fu)
2. Wei Qu - Flower Drum (arr. Xuefei Yang)
3. Chinese Traditional Song - A Moonlit Night on the Spring River (arr. Xuefei Yang)
4. Guang Ren - Silver Clouds Chasing the Moon (arr. Xuefei Yang)
5. Chinese Traditional Song - Hujia (arr. Weiliang Zhang)
6. Chinese Traditional Song - White Snow in the Spring Sunlight (arr. Xuefei Yang)
7. Tieshan Liu - Yao Dance (arr. Xuefei Yang)
8. Kunqu opera - Everlasting Longing (arr. Sha Yuan)
9. Chinese Traditional Song - Three Variations on Plum Blossom (arr. Xuefei Yang)
10. Chinese Traditional Song - Fisherman’s Song by Moonlight (arr. Sha Yuan & Xuefei Yang)

CD2

1. Changjun Xu - Sword Dance (arr. Xuefei Yang)
2. Yong Ning - Camel Bells Along the Silk Road (arr. Xuefei Yang)
3. Yi Chen - Shuo Chang
4. Wen-chung Chou - Three Folk Songs (arr. Kenneth Kwan & Xuefei Yang)
5. Renchang Fu - Dreams of Gulangyu Island
6. Tan Dun - Seven Desires: 1
7. Tan Dun - Seven Desires: 2
8. Tan Dun - Seven Desires: 3
9. Tan Dun - Seven Desires: 4
10. Tan Dun - Seven Desires: 5
11. Tan Dun - Seven Desires: 6
12. Tan Dun - Seven Desires: 7
13. Qing Xi Weng - The Moon Represents My Heart (arr. Roland Dyens)

Xuefei Yang, guitar

Xiamen Philharmonic Orchestra

Renchang Fu, conductor

Date: 2020

Label: Decca

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Review

Truth, fantasy, boldness and delicacy. Listening to Chinese classical guitarist Xuefei Yang’s latest album is like watching a parade of exquisitely rendered beasts on a silk handscroll. ‘Sketches of China’ (a nod to Miles Davis?) features Chinese classical, folk and modern music from the Han Dynasty to today in orchestral, chamber and solo arrangements, transcriptions or original compositions. Some are the result of commissions; others are by Xuefei herself; all are brought together by ‘a desire to share more of my own culture with audiences around the world’.

On two tracks – the opening A Lovely Rose and Dreams of Gulangyu Island – Xuefei is accompanied by the Xiamen Philharmonic Orchestra under Renchang Fu, who also arranged the former and composed the latter work. In a handful of others, she is joined by masters Weiliang Zhang on xiao (a variety of flute) and Sha Yuan on guzheng (plucked zither). Yet while the majority of the pieces are performed on solo guitar, Xuefei possesses an imagination as fluid and expansive as her technique. Such that Xuefei’s improvised cadenzas in A Lovely Rose capture much of the orchestra’s colour and sonority. And the haunting Hujia (with xiao) and nostalgia-drenched Everlasting Longing (with guzheng) find their echoes in White Snow in the Spring Sunlight, The Moon Represents My Heart and even Tan Dun’s Seven Desires.

This despite the all-pervasive spirit of the pipa, which informs Xuefei’s near-total mastery of her own instrument. If this gorgeous recording finds its ideal pictorial analogue in a painted scroll, Xuefei Yang’s playing can best be compared to the spontaneity and control of a master calligrapher.

— William Yeoman

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Xuefei Yang (born 15 March 1977) is a Chinese classical guitarist. A graduate of Beijing's Central Conservatoire of Music, she became the first Chinese musician to receive a full postgraduate scholarship at London's Royal Academy of Music, where she won the Principal's Prize. She has performed in over 50 countries at the world's most prestigious venues and festivals, and frequently appears as soloist with major orchestras worldwide. Acclaimed for her recordings and repertoire expansion, Xuefei Yang has released multiple award-winning albums and premiered important new works for guitar.

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