Xuefei Yang’s Latest Album of “Favourites”

Cover of the album being discussed (courtesy of Crossover Media)

Those that have been following this site for some time know that guitarist Xuefei Yang is no stranger to San Francisco. Indeed, in a little over a month’s time, she will make her next appearance as a solo recitalist in the Dynamite Guitars concert series presented by the Omni Foundation for the Performing Arts. In all likelihood, her program will draw upon her latest album, Guitar Favourites, produced by UMG (Universal Music Group) China on the Decca label.

This seems to be the latest case of Amazon.com dropping the ball. The good news is that the album is available through a Presto Music Web page. Regular readers probably know by now that Presto is based in the United Kingdom; and, as a result, the album is available only for download. Sadly, there is no accompanying digital booklet; but the Web page provides a thorough track listing.

Most of the selections on this album are relatively short, but there is a complete account of Fernando Sor’s Opus 9, given the title “Introduction and Variations on a Theme by Mozart.” The theme is “Das klinget so herrlich” (that sounds so splendid), the chorus sung by slaves enchanted by Papageno’s magic bells in the first act of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s K. 602 opera The Magic Flute. The other multimovement selection is La Catedral, a three-movement suite by Agustín Barrios, all of whose movements are less than three and a half minutes.

Barrios is represented by three additional short pieces, following up on the first of the five preludes, which Heitor Villa-Lobos dedicated to his wife Arminda Neves d'Almeida. These South American composers are complemented on the Spanish side by not only Sor but also Isaac Albéniz (“Asturias,” originally the first movement of Suite española, composed for piano), Francisco Tárrega (“Recuerdos de la Alhambra”), and the fandango that is the first movement of the three Piezas Españolas collected by Joaquín Rodrigo. The penultimate track is one of Yang’s own compositions, “Xinjiang Fantasy,” which is followed by the concluding track, the Irish tune “Danny Boy,” the traditional “Londonderry Air,” which was then given lyrics by Frederic Weatherly.

This all makes for an album rich in diversity, given consistently engaging accounts in Yang’s performances.