Classical Guitar by Yang Xuefei

GIULUO REGONDI: Nocturne Op.15. NICOLO PAGANINI: Capricho No.24 Op.1. JOSE LUIS MERLIN: Suite del Recuerdo. PAUL MACARTNEY: Here, There and Everywhere (arr. Toru Takemitse). WANG HUIRAN: Yi Dance (arr. Yang Xuefei). ROLAND DYENS: Saudade No.3. J.S. BACH: Chaccone from Violon Partita No.2. CARLO DOMENICONI: Koyunbaba Op.19.
Shine Horn Records, China. SC-1029



The name Xuefei Yang is familiar to people who know a thing or two about the classical guitar scene in China, and when the dust is settled after this 21-year-old moves to England later this year, the rest of the world can see (and hear) for itself what this fuzz is really about.

This debut album delivers a program that is as virtuoso as it is diverse in style. The Regondi is impressive in that it has one of the most convincing tremolo display among other recordings of this same piece--Yang is able to delineate the various individual lines like no others. The Paganini here is the most explosive rendition of this old warhorse this reviewer has come across.

Yang the arranger shines in transcription of the traditional pipa piece Yi Dance--there are several transcriptions of this same piece floating around in China today, but this is the only one that best reflects the various nuances of pipa playing with standard classical guitar technique.

The biggest surprise of this album is the Takemitsu transcription of the Beatles' Here, There, and Everywhere. It turns out behind the explosiveness and ferociosness of her playing, Yang has a reflective side to her temperament that brings out the lilting melancholy of this little tune.

The rest of the album compares equally well with other recordings of the same music, especially worth mentioning is a breath-taking rendition of such "trite" piece as Domeniconi's Koyunbaba.