Debut album (2012). Includes works by J. S. Bach, Antoine de Lhoyer, Beethoven, Albeniz and the world premiere recording of “Red” by Joseph Williams. Available for purchase at Amazon, Bandcamp, CD Baby, iTunes.
The recording includes my arrangement of Bach's Brandenburg Concerto #3 about which the TXGQ wrote: "We start things off with Richard Yates' brilliant arrangement of J. S. Bach's entire Brandenburg Concerto No. 3. Mr. Yates has this to say about his reworking of the piece: 'The original instrumentation for this large work included three violins, three violas, three violoncellos and continuo.Were there considerable obstacles to arranging this for four guitars? Not so much in reducing the range or texture, but in trying to address the ways that Bach so artfully arranged the interplay of the different instrument sections. While much of that structure is apparently lost in the superficial look at the guitar scores, in performance the sections can be resurrected through the technique of the players.' "
Brad Conroy's review in Guitar International says in part, "Red opens with the three movements of J.S. Bach’s “Brandenburg Concerto” and the TxGQ deliver a very expressive, clear, and near flawless performance of this masterpiece. The arrangement, by Richard Yates ,has been done with much attention in a very scholarly fashion, as the detailed nature of this music is spread evenly amongst the four guitars, sounding quite natural within this setting. Each voice is clear and balanced which complements and accentuates the intertwining melodic, harmonic and contrapuntal passages of Bach’s music."