Vanessa-Mae CDs kick up a storm

Her recordings have been selling nearly as fast as the tickets for her concerts did. "I sold four Vanessa-Mae CDs this morning in the first few minutes after I opened," said Jean Khoury, sales manager of La Maison Du Disque in Achrafieh. Several hundred CDs of the violinist's five albums have passed through the shop's six branches. Khoury has also sold over a thousand Vanessa-Mae tapes ­ for which he has exclusive distribution rights.

"Having heard Vanessa-Mae," Khoury said, "a lot of people want to listen to other versions of the same music. So, for example, I also sell a lot more of Vivaldi's 'Four Seasons' recorded by many different artists."

Other record sellers confirm the attractions of CDs by Baalbek's two biggest draws. "Vanessa-Mae and Charles Aznavour are booming," said Ghaled Sayed of the Top Ten record shop. So far the chain's six branches has sold about a hundred copies of each. "We would have sold more of Vanessa-Mae," Sayed said, "but we've run out of stock."

Tony Sfeir is the manager and owner of Kaslik's CD-theque. With 16,000 titles he has one of widest ranges in Lebanon and seems to be the only retailer offering the Kirov Opera and June Anderson. "There are two kind of customers for the festivals," he said. "The first buys the CDs of big names like Vanessa-Mae and Charles Aznavour before going to the concert. The second visits the concert of the lesser known artists and buys a CD afterwards." In the past month CD-theque has sold some 120 Aznavour and 150 Vanessa-Mae albums (half of which were her latest "Storm" album). Meanwhile, sales of Tito Puente and Celia Cruz ­ "the Lebanese adored her," noted Sfeir ­ increased right after the concert.

Guitar maestro John McLaughlin, said Sfeir, "sells anyway." Older records like "Birds of Fire" and "Love, Devotion, Surrender" already have a loyal following. And sales of his latest, "Remember Shakti" ­ similar to the set he'll play at Beiteddine next Wednesday ­ are picking up.

Lebanon's Rabieh Abou-Khalil is already one of Sfeir's 10 best-selling artists. "His CD "Yara" is doing as well, if not better, than any of his earlier albums," said Sfeir. Shops vary in the extent they promote artists. "Aznavour is already very big in Lebanon," said Khoury. "So far we haven't really sold more than normal. Maybe we will after his concert. After Tito Puente played, there was a lot of demand, and I sold all the copies I had of his compilation albums."

Apart from a poster of Rabieh Abou-Khalil's "Yara" there is nothing in La Maison Du Disque projecting the international stars playing at this year's summer festivals. "I do special promotions only if I'm allowed to sell tickets," explained Khoury. "We do give special discounts," CD-theque's Sfeir said. "We also encourage people to listen to the participating artists."

Given the encouraging sales at record shops, it comes as a surprise that the festivals do not have a stand with CDs and tapes. "We don't have the right to sell things like T-shirts and CDs," said Maya Halabi of the Baalbek festival." But why not allow a record shop to sell, as happens at festivals in Europe? "To be honest," said Magda Rizkallah of the Beiteddine festival, "we never thought of it. It's a good suggestion."

Tony Sfeir is currently negotiating to sell Charles Aznavour records after his concert at Baalbek. "The problem is that we also need the permission of the ministry of tourism," he said, "and you know the speed they work at, especially in summer." But the potential is there, Sfeir insisted. "When Renaud Garcia-Fons played at the AUB in the oriental jazz festival in January, there were 250 people and I sold 120 CDs."

The CDs on sale

Selling well

Vanessa-Mae
"Storm" (EMI),
"The Violin Player" (EMI)

Charles Aznavour
"Vingt Chansons d'Or" (EMI),
"Quarante Chansons d'Or" (EMI)
- playing at Baalbek 7 August

John McLaughlin, Zakir Hussain
"Remember Shakti" (Polygram)
- playing at Beiteddine, 28 July

Rabih Abou-Khalil,
"Yara," (Enja)
- playing Baalbek, 20 and 21 August

Kazem Al Saher
"Habibtee wa al-Matar" (Rotana)
- playing Beiteddine, 12 and 13 August

Bubbling under

Celia Cruz
"Greatest Hits" (Rhino)

Tito Puente
"Mambo Cha-Cha" and other compilations (Saludos Amigos)

Kirov Opera
Tchaikovsky's "Nutcracker Suite" (Phillips)

June Anderson
"Arias" (EMI Classics)
- playing Baalbek July 29 and 31