40 Degrees North -Guitar Music from Spain & China: Albeniz, S.Goss, Tarrega, Granados, etc / Xuefei Yang(g)

XueFei Yang follows up her extraordinary EMI debut Romance de Amor with 40 Degrees North, named after the latitudinal line that runs through both Madrid and Beijing. It also runs through Columbus, OH, and divides the state of Kansas from that of Nebraska, but these places have not contributed to Yang's playing; she reveals in her liner notes that Spanish guitar literature and Chinese traditional song function as the twin fonts of her inspiration. This combination of elements also typifies Romance de Amor, except that the program was weighted more heavily toward the Spanish end of the equation; the recipe here is roughly half and half. Her playing is just as good here as it was on Romance de Amor, but 40 Degrees North falls a little short of its predecessor, though it has no shortage of striking individual highlights. Many of the transcriptions heard are Yang's own, and they have a unique personality; they are very clean, precise, and rhythmically quite crisp, which works well for the Granados Valses poeticos; check out the "Introduccion" for a particularly dazzling example. Yet it works less well in the Albeniz; these pieces have been transcribed for guitar elsewhere, and in Yang's re-conceptions they seem a little lacking in terms of depth and fluidity. Stephen Goss' original work for 40 Degrees North, a suite on Chinese melodies entitled The Chinese Garden, is the highlight of the album; they are genuinely beautiful and well-crafted pieces and are lovingly played by Yang. By comparison, Yang's own transcription of Chen and He's famous Butterfly Lovers Concerto seems strangely empty, as if something of the potency of the original were missing. One is left with a result that is pleasant, but not particularly moving. Still, 40 Degrees North is an entirely satisfactory outing, and Yang remains one of the most compelling young classical guitarists out there. While Columbus, OH, and the Kansas-Nebraska border may still not seem like very good places for inspiring a classical artist of Yang's caliber, 40 Degrees North begs the suggestion that perhaps broadening one's horizons a bit in terms of repertoire might not be a bad plan for the future.