The concert

The concert started with ‘The Blessed Spirits,’ the closing track on the ‘Storm’ album. Vanessa-Mae appeared in the hall coming down a stairs when the violin part in the number started about half-way the track. I found this an electrifying moment and I felt the excitement among the audience as well. The concert had finally started.

Vanessa-Mae appeared on stage wearing a Chinese style long coat as shown on the photo below. She used this wonderful coat often during the ‘Storm On World Tour’ concerts and at television appearances during this period.

‘The Blessed Spirits’ is really one of my favourite tracks on the ‘Storm’ album. The song starts quietly and gradually builds up to a climax as it progresses to the final in which the soaring sound of the violin rises above the accompanying instruments. It was a spectacular start of a splendid evening.

Vanessa-Mae then removed her long coat. She was now wearing a short red skirt and white T-shirt with pink stripes around the end of the short sleeves and the low cut neck and shoulder straps. Both skirt and T-shirt were made of a satin like shiny material, perhaps polyester type fibre, see the two photos below.

The next song was ‘I Feel Love.’ Vanessa-Mae sang the vocal part of this pop classic very passionately and eloquently and her soft, somewhat monotonous voice added to the atmosphere in the hall. Moreover, Vanessa-Mae’s act on stage with tempting and seductive steps and body movements was very inspiring. I think that Vanessa-Mae’s version, especially seen together with her live act on stage, of this well-known pop classic is providing something extra not seen and heard in all other version.

Then Vanessa-Mae addressed the audience, wishing all an entertaining evening. She told us that she and her musicians quickly had to continue the show as they all had a lot of music to bring.

Next Hocus Pocus, Retro and Aurora were played. All these songs were performed very well and I was very impressed by the technical abilities of Vanessa-Mae in particular, but of all her musicians as well: all played very well.

Next was the classical section. I was very impressed by Vanessa-Mae’s rendition of Ravel’s Tzigane. I was only briefly familiar with this piece, but after hearing it once Tzigane already belongs to my favourite compositions. During the performance of Tzigane, Vanessa-Mae was only accompanied by her mother on piano. This sober play of Ravel’s masterly designed composition was very adequate and brought the audience to ecstasy.

The final song before the break was ‘(I) Can, Can (You). For this song, Vanessa-Mae and all her musicians did an orange coloured shirt over their outfits as reference to the colours of our Dutch national football team that was participating in the world championships for national soccer teams that had just begun in France that Summer. Vanessa-Mae wished the Dutch team all possible success. The audience rewarded her generosity with an ovation and cheers.

After the break for the second part of the concert, Vanessa-Mae had changed into a beautiful long dress with panther print design and leg long splits from her waist all down to her ankles. See the two photos below were made during other events in this tour of concerts and are used here to get an impression of how Vanessa-Mae looked at the second part of the show.

I preserve the best recollection for the second part of the evening to ‘I Am A Doun.’ Vanessa-Mae accompanied herself on piano while she was singing the intro. Usually her mother plays the piano or she sings it solo without any support. For this particular concert Vanessa-Mae chose this unique setting, although it had been reported before in other venues. Also memorable was Vanessa-Mae’s performance of ‘Bach Street Prelude.’ Playing her acoustic violin, Vanessa-Mae was accompanied only by the percussionist using all kind of little drums, barrels and other bins. Watch the ‘Storm On World Tour’ movie to get an impression on the joy in which both Vanessa-Mae and the percussionist had playing this song and to see the wildly enthusiastic effect on the audience and the magical atmosphere this brought to the complete venue. Vanessa-Mae played this song at all the concerts that I visited of her, and on all occasions I felt the special emotion again. I really enjoyed all the times that I have seen her play this song live on stage.

Of course, well-known classics like ‘Toccata & Fugue’ and ‘Red Hot’ were played during this second part of the evening. During these, Vanessa-Mae’s virtuoso handling of her instrument is impressive and spectacular. ‘Happy Valley’ was also nicely played with only three or four background singers. Vanessa-Mae told the audience the story of this composition related to the Re-unification of Hong Kong, and how privileged she felt being invited as only foreign artist to play at a moment of such great historic significance and impact. She played ‘Storm’ too of course towards the end of the show. ‘Strom’ is an absolutely superb song to electrify an audience with and to end a brilliant concert. After receiving standing ovations and longingly yells from the audience, Vanessa-Mae and her musicians returned on stage to play once more ‘(I) Can, Can (You)’ and ’Storm’ as encores. A spectacular and brilliant concert had ended.

copyrights of the text © VMSPOS @ http://www.vanessa-mae.nu, Groningen, The Netherlands, 2004