Xuefei Yang's Sketches of China was released on the Decca label's Chinese branch but has become a commercial success in the West (as well as, presumably, in China). No doubt this is partly because Yang has already released several well-received albums of Western music, but it's more than that. The album, in spite of the fact that it comprises exclusively Chinese selections and is presented as a return to the artist's roots (as a professional classical guitarist Yang is virtually a pioneer in her homeland), occupies a space between East and West that will exert fascination over listeners from both regions. Yang's program takes a synoptic approach, drawing selections from Chinese traditional music dating back centuries and includes contemporary works as well; Tan Dun's Seven Desires is an accessible work that will certainly appeal to lovers of the composer's film scores. Moreover, she draws on the music of China's ethnic minorities, including that of the persecuted Uighur culture of the far west. Yang uses her own guitar arrangements as well as those of others, and she plays not only solo guitar but duets with Chinese traditional instruments and a few guitar-and-orchestra pieces, joined by the Xiamen Philharmonic under Renchang Fu. Thus, there are two separate forms of fusion happening here: first, there is the act of rendering Chinese tradition on an instrument external to it, and second is the large variety of music being presented. The result is a kaleidoscopic procession in which Yang's guitar, by turns, stays close to its usual Western sounds and imitates such Chinese instruments as the qin, pipa, and liuqin. The range of sounds coming out of the guitar is startling, and Decca's engineering team does them justice. A landmark release, not only of guitar music but of the growing interaction between Chinese and Western musical cultures.
© James Manheim /TiVo