VANESSA-MAE: THE MAGIC VIOLIN PERIOD
LIVE IN LUDWIGSBURG, GERMANY
- at the Residenzschloss on Friday September 3, 2010 -
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CONTENTS OF THIS REVIEW (links below are bookmarked)
- Photos of Vanessa-Mae at her concert
General impression
This particular concert of Vanessa-Mae was among the best of the nine times
that we have seen her till now. It was a delight to hear that she did several of
her well-known classics in special arrangements with new twists. This is
certainly a development in her live performances that we welcome specifically
because it shows that she still grows as live performer, and it provides new
versions of famous music in new arrangements that appeared to work all very
well. Moreover, both Vanessa-Mae and the band played passionately and
energetically, Vanessa-Mae centred on stage and walking around to all corners
making sure that all visitors could get a good glimpse of her, smiling to the
audience as if she gave everyone individually the idea that she knew you were
there too. Also, the string orchestra was very good. In general, the quality
of the sound was good, especially considering that the concert was an outdoors
event. Although the day was a comfortable late summer day in early September,
the evening turned out to be rather chilly after sunset, which made an extra
warm sweater necessary. The chilly temperatures also had an effect on the
instruments as well. In particularly, Vanessa-Mae had to tune her violins
several times in between songs. Remarkable, Vanessa-Mae was dressed lightly in a
wonderful red evening dress. She made some remarks thanking the audience to have
stayed for her during the chilly evening. This concert was in the framework of a
new tour of concerts the so-called Magic Violin Period Tour in which
Vanessa-Mae plays a representative selection of songs covering her complete
repertoire from The Violin Player to Choreography. However, songs from
Choreography are still well represented, although
only the fifth piece came from her latest album where on the Choreography Tour
focus of the show was from the start (Sabre Dance) on
Choreography. The track listing for the program is give below. Our estimate
is that about 3,000-3,500 people were attending Vanessa-Mae's concert.
Vanessa-Mae is very loved and popular in Germany among a wide range of people,
which is reflected in her audiences varying among all ages from elderly,
middle-aged, families with children, teenagers, and all cultures and races.
Besides professionals, we saw people taking photos and videos from the audience.
We too managed to bring in our camera Nikon D700 with 70-300 mm zoom to make
photos, of which a selection is shown latter in this review. The support act for
the evening came from a local band called Experience playing a mix of well-know
pop classics and compositions of their own.
- Storm -
- Retro -
- Bach Street Prelude -
- short speech by Vanessa-Mae -
- Red Hot -
- Roxanne's Veil -
- Emerald Tiger -
-------- electric intermezzo with --------
- Laughing Buddha -
- short speech by Vanessa-Mae -
- Contradanza -
- Hocus Pocus -
-------- break --------
- Sabre Dance -
- Wilde Screen -
- short speech by Vanessa-Mae -
- Bolero for violin and orchestra -
- I Am A Doun -
- Tango De Los Exilados -
- The Havana Slide -
- Tribal Gathering -
- short speech by Vanessa-Mae -
- Toccata & Fugue -
-------- encore --------
- Art Of War (aka The Power Of C) -
The setting of the
concert
Vanessa-Mae's concert was part of a
The Kreissparkasse
Ludwigsburg Music Open that took place from Thursday September 2 till Sunday
September 4 of 2010 in the city castle of Ludwigsburg. The so-called
Residenzschloss. The concerts were held each evening in the inner
courtyard of the castle. The line of the main acts were Jan Delay & Disko No.1 +
Culcha Candela (Sept. 2), Vanessa-Mae (Sept. 3) and Udo Jürgens
(Sept. 4). All acts that played at the festival are nationally celebrated
musicians, beside Vanessa-Mae who is, of course, a real top act in the
international music scene. The online announcement for Vanessa-Mae's concert can
be viewed at
Vanessa-Mae at the Ludwigsburg Music open. The official concert flyer is
shown below. The ain sponsor for the music festival was the
Kreissparkasse Ludwigsburg, the local bank for the region of and around
Ludwigsburg.
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Vanessa-Mae at her concert
It is always a joy to see Vanessa-Mae perform live on stage at a concert.
This concert in Ludwigsburg marks the 9th time that we have seen Vanessa-Mae
perform live on stage, and each time again we were anxious, even nervous, to
find how she would look, what kind of clothes she would wear, the way her hair
would be styled, and what her make-up would look like. We think that many fans
share this same emotion that is the extension of her charm; and it is contagious
and addictive: once you have seen her live, you want more, you will never get
enough of her. This evening, Vanessa-Mae appeared on stage in a fantastic
knee-length sleeveless red dress of some fluttering light fibre, most likely
silk, that had a round wide collar with ruffles. Vanessa-Mae had her hair in
braids on top and to the side of her head, and hanging in free style on her
back. Her face was, of course, more than perfect, meticulously made up to a
impeccable flawless complexion with covering foundation crème, only a small line
of dark shadow on her upper lid, excessively used mascara that created shadows
by the incidence of the spotlight underneath her eyes when closed, with brows
shaped to perfect arcs with a black pencil, and lips painted in glossy cerise
red completed Vanessa-Mae's face wear, everything done in such a ways to have the
make-up obviously visible without creating too painted looks. Vanessa-Mae was on
pink open shoes with spike heels; she had no jewelleries and had a silver belt
around her waist to have that hold her connectors on her back to plug in the
violins. Needless to say that she looked awesome as always. The magic for a
spectacular concert was present immediately when she entered the stage to
receive standing ovations from the audience. The 19 photos below are a selection
from the more than 300 that we made during the concert, and this series give a
solid impression about Vanessa-Mae's looks.
Photos of Vanessa-Mae at her concert
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| photo 1 | photo 2 | photo 3 | photo 4 | photo 5 |
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| photo 6 | photo 7 | photo 8 | photo 9 | photo 10 |
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| photo 11 | photo 12 | photo 13 | photo 14 | photo 15 |
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| photo 16 | photo 17 | photo 18 | photo 19 |
Description of
the concert
Vanessa-Mae appeared on stage for the start of her program at 21:20 and
finished at 23:15. With a short break of about 15 minutes, she played about 1
hrs and 40 minutes. Most of the songs were played by Vanessa-Mae on her acoustic
Guadagnini violin, except for those pieces listed at the electric intermezzo.
The concert started with her blockbuster hit Storm that
is part of her all her concerts worldwide - photos 1 to 5 were taken when
Vanessa-Mae played Storm. Vanessa-Mae starting with this lively and brilliant
piece of music set the mood for the whole concert to spectacle and passion.
Storm was played according the lines as it is on the album. Retro, too from the
album Storm, followed. And then came one of the highlights of the evening, as
far as we are concerned, Bach Street prelude. Vanessa-Mae sat down on the stage
with her legs over the edge - see the photos 6-15 - to play the Bach street
Prelude accompanied only by her percussionist using all kind of small
instruments like sticks, bells and more like this. Bach Street Prelude started
quietly, and as it progressed, Vanessa-Mae and the percussionist came engaged in
a dialogue that whipped up steed loudness and passion. Vanessa-Mae always brings
the Bach Street Prelude like this, and it is always such a joy to see and hear
her play this particular piece that has become one of our favourites at her
concerts.
After finishing Bach Street Prelude, Vanessa-Mae addressed the audience in a short speech. She told us how delighted she was to play in Germany at a wonderful music festival. She thanked the sponsors for their invitation, and she thanked the audience for showing up an such large numbers to resist the chilly evening to hear her. She stated that she wanted to guide the listeners through a selection of pieces form her repertoire, and that she wanted to show how versatile the violin can be, not only playing classics but also modern music.
Next followed Red Hot, a composition by Vanessa-Mae herself that was her second pop single from her blockbuster album The Violin Player that is always recognised and welcomed by audiences instantaneously. Then she played the first pieces from her latest album Choreography, being Emerald tiger and Roxannes Veil. emerald Tiger is spectacular to see live on stage because it has so much dynamics. Roxannes Veil is so touchy and moody, it is quiet but with lots of expression. During Roxannes Veil, Vanessa-Mae's Saying power On Strings (VMSPOS) becomes lively apparent: definitely a brilliant piece of music composed by Vangelis.
Then Vanessa-Mae picked up her white electric Jazz Fusion violin from the table. After a bit of tuning, she played Laughing Buddha from the Subject To Change album. During this piece, Vanessa-Mae used pedals to trigger a certain electric effect. We have seen Vanessa-Mae play this piece at most of the concerts that we attended since 2001, and several times she encountered problems that the pedals weren't working properly resulting in that the effect was not audible. This time, however, everything was functioning as intended.
Next followed another short speech of Vanessa-Mae. She mentioned that she wanted to bring a couple of pieces played on electric violin. First, she introduced Contradanza that also originates from her early career during The Violin Player period. She mentioned that all members of the band would do a little solo in this special version of Contradanza. She concluded the speech by telling that Hocus Pocus from Storm would conclude the first part of her show and that a short break would follow. Now, Contradanza was played in a special arrangement, allowing all musicians from her band to engage in a short solo to excel their skills. Finally before the break, Hocus Pocus was played in a rather traditional arrangement.
After the break, Vanessa-Mae continued to play on her acoustic Guadagnini violin. She opened the second leg of her concert with Sabre Dance from the Choreography album, played in a normal fashion. Normally Sabre Dance formed the start of her Choreography tour concerts, but this time it came first in line after the break. Sabre Dance is always Next song, Wide Screen from The Violin Player, was really a surprise because Vanessa-Mae has never played it before at any of the concerts that we attended.
Then Vanessa-Mae had a short speech again in which she told the audience that the show would slow down a bit with a couple of more classical oriented pieces that would include Bolero, I Am A Doun and Tango de Los Exilados. All these three pieces were very well played with Vanessa-Mae show casing all her technical skills. Especially, I Am A Doun, that is on both The Classical Album 1 and Storm, was wonderfully performed in a unique arrangement. Vanessa-Mae started quietly on her violin accompanied by piano only. As the song progressed, gradually more instruments joined from the band and string orchestra, as well as the level of the sound increased: truly a wonderful version and well played by all musicians.
The concert was speed up again with the up tempo Havana Slide that is always cheerful and it is nice to see Vanessa-Mae's joy to play this one, showing her smile to the audience very often. Tribal Gathering followed. And this is really a complex composition. In this evening's version, more percussion and guitar was used, to support the accompanying string orchestra. Tribal Gathering is definitely one of our favourites, but we suspect not all fans value this unusual and somehow experimental composition equally outspoken.
Next, Vanessa-Mae addressed the audience again. She told that she would now play a final piece that all would recognise immediately, and that she remembered playing in Germany for the first time, some 15-16 years ago on television at a show of Thomas Gottschalk, a famous and popular German show host. Obviously, many in the audience remembered Vanessa-Mae's performance on this show, judging the chuckling heard among the public. Vanessa-Mae joked that she was very much younger back then, but about the same height. Indeed, her figure and posture have hardly changed in all those years. Of course, Vanessa-Mae referred to Toccata & Fugue, her block buster hit world wide from the The Violin Player album.
After finishing Toccata & Fugue, Vanessa-Mae received flowers from a representative of the sponsors and she left the stage shortly, to enter again for an encore. Surprisingly, Vanessa-Mae played The Art Of War, also known as The Power Of C, that is not on any of her albums, but that was used in Germany by Mercedes to support their new Mercedes C class model. Vanessa-Mae made this special arrangement of Prokofiev's 'Dance Of The Knights,' that is part of his famous ballet 'Romeo And Juliet.' The song is full of dynamics, and it is up tempo with a few slow scenes. Truly, a brilliant end of a fantastic evening.
copyrights of the text © VMSPOS @ http://www.vanessa-mae.nu, The Netherlands, September 11, 2010