{"id":15464,"date":"2020-12-19T16:18:08","date_gmt":"2020-12-20T00:18:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/?p=15464"},"modified":"2020-12-21T10:55:05","modified_gmt":"2020-12-21T18:55:05","slug":"recent-albums-by-xuefei-yang-yuri-liberzon-and-alex-park","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/recent-albums-by-xuefei-yang-yuri-liberzon-and-alex-park\/","title":{"rendered":"Reviews: Recent Albums by Xuefei Yang, Yuri Liberzon, and Alex Park"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

BY BLAIR JACKSON \/Editor, Classical Guitar<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Xuefei Yang
Sketches of China<\/em><\/strong>
(Decca)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On of the first interviews I did for Classical Guitar<\/em> magazine after becoming its editor more than six years ago was with the great Xuefei Yang, in Oklahoma City, in the American Southwest, of all places; it was my first Guitar Foundation of America convention. She was a wonderful interview subject\u2014bright, engaging, articulate\u2014and one of the things that really struck me about our conversation was that she was adamant about wanting to explore her Chinese musical heritage more. At the time, she had recorded her own arrangement of the Chinese folk song “Fisherman’s Song by Moonlight” and I loved how she managed to bring the sound of the traditional Chinese guzheng<\/em> (a 13-string Chinese zither) onto the classical guitar. When I last saw her perform, in San Francisco in 2019, nearly half her program consisted of Chinese pieces and I found it utterly captivating. Now she has made a truly wonderful two-CD set devoted completely to both ancient and modern Chinese works, recorded in Beijing. Most are solo guitar pieces, but a handful find her accompanied effectively by an orchestra or a solitary guzheng<\/em> or xiao<\/em> (bamboo flute). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Disc 1 is the more traditional-sounding of the two and it aligns more with my personal taste. As I mentioned in reviewing a disc of music by Vietnamese guitarist An Tran a while back, I have only a passing knowledge of most East Asian music forms, but I have always been very attracted to many of them, especially Japanese and Chinese folk music and Indonesian gamelan. So an album like this, which artfully combines classical guitar with folk music, is right in my wheelhouse (or “up my alley” if you prefer that cliche). There is a spare beauty to so much of this music; as Westerners, it is natural that we associate this sort of music with decorative Chinese art\u2014scenes of waterfalls cascading over rocks, rippling streams, delicate trees dotting steep hillsides. But as Xuefei says in her helpful notes, these aren’t just evocative natural landscapes brought magnificently to life, though they are that. They are also portraits of human<\/em> emotions, where natural elements are sometimes intended as metaphors for human feelings, which is why they land with such power. Xuefei’s ability to mimic certain traditional Chinese instruments on her guitar is uncanny\u2014the quick slides up and down the fretboard; the seemingly endless variations of tremolo (so different than Barrios!); the distinctive, crisp, individuated plucking of certain notes; the at times brash and explosive strumming; the glistening rushes of notes that sound like they’re pouring<\/em> out of her instrument; the creative employment of harmonics. This is a seriously <\/em>virtuosic performance that takes “classical guitar” in many exciting new directions. It’s also great to hear her in duet with a guzheng <\/em>(played by Sha Yuan) on a pair of pieces: It sounds like such a natural pairing all of a sudden.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Disc 2 introduces more “modern” elements to the sound\u2014get ready for a handful of pieces (or parts of pieces) where the plucking turns to abrasive snapping, rhythms become abrupt and irregular, and the serene beauty of country landscapes gives way to what sound more like gritty, overcrowded city scenes; at least that’s how I hear it. Even at its most abstract, however, there are still wisps of tradition blowing through the music, but in a sometimes startling new context, as in Tan Dun’s Seven Desires<\/em>\u2014one of just three pieces I was already familiar with (via versions by Xingye Li and, more recently, Sharon Isbin on her excellent Affinity<\/em> album). Anothert piece I knew is the gorgeous closer on Disc 2, The Moon Represents My Heart<\/em> a piece by pop composer Quinxi Weng that Roland Dyens magnificently arranged for guitar. It is the perfect capper to Xuefei Yang’s truly remarkable musical achievement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Disc 1: A Lovely Rose <\/em>(arr. Renchang Fu); Flower Drum<\/em> (Wei Qu); A Moonlit Night on the Spring River <\/em>(Trad.); Silver Clouds Chasing the Moon (Guang Ren<\/em>); Hujia<\/em> (Trad. arr. Weiliang Zhang); White Snow in the Spring Sunlight<\/em> (Trad.); Yao Dance<\/em> (Tiehsan Lu & Yuan Mao); Everlasting Longing<\/em> (Trad. arr. Sha Yuan); Three Variations on Plum Blossoms<\/em> (Trad.); Fisherman’s Song By Moonlight <\/em>(Trad. arr. by Xuefei Yang & Sha Yuan)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Disc 2: Sword Dance<\/em> (Changjun Shu); Camel Bells Along the Silk Road <\/em>(Yong Ning); Shun Chang<\/em> (Yi Chjen); Three Folk Songs<\/em> (WenChung Chou, arr. Kenneth Kwan and Xuefei Yang); Dreams of Gulangyu Island <\/em>(Rendung Fu); Seven Desires<\/em> (Dan Tun); The Moon Represents My Heart<\/em> (Qingxi Weng, Arr. Roland Dyens)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sketches of China<\/em> can be streamed and\/or purchased through Amazon<\/a> and iTunes\/Apple Music<\/a>; and streamed on Spotify<\/a> and YouTube<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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