May Farah catches Vanessa-Mae's passion, energy and professionalism

Redefining the violin with love

You name it, the violin can play it, Vanessa-Mae told her 4,000-strong crowd. "It's a versatile instrument, "she said. Like her instrument, the petite 19-year-old was equally versatile. Whatever she played, she was absolutely brilliant. From the moment she charged on stage at 9pm on Saturday night to open the 22nd Baalbek Festival, the audience was enthralled.

With her second CD, "The Violin Player", Vanessa-Mae set out four years ago to redefine what the violin was all about. As she told her audience, it is an instrument with no bounds, boundaries or limits. Accompanied by her band and back-up singers, including 11 Lebanese musicians, Vanessa-Mae gave us funk, rock, jazz and the classics, even throwing in rap and an Arabic song, Omar Diab's "Habibi ya nour al ain", which she confessed they had learned only that afternoon.

What makes Vanessa-Mae special is not just her apparently limitless energy level, nor her mastery of the violin, both electric and acoustic, nor even that she straddles classical and rock music with equal authority. Rather, it is her relationship with the audience. She communicated with them throughout the evening, explaining the history of the pieces and what had inspired her to record them. In turn, the audience responded with appreciation and pleasure at every opportunity.

The evening was not without its problems. There were a few broken strings, the faint sound of Arabic music drifted in from a nearby restaurant, and problems with the sound forced her to change her program and rely on her acoustic violin for most of the first set.

If Vanessa-Mae was at all affected by the snarls, she took them in her stride. "Sometimes the old is better than the new", she explained, picking up her 1761-crafted violin which she apologetically said she needed to tune regularly. And then she carried on, bouncing from one side of the stage to the other, encouraging her audience to join in, her passion and intensity becoming increasingly contagious.

Unfortunately, the end came almost abruptly. Having built up the momentum, and with the audience dancing, swaying and completely under her charm, word was sent to Vanessa-Mae to bring the show to an end.

Apparently one of the ministers in attendance felt it was time for everyone to go home. Faced with mixed signals, Vanessa-Mae tried to please both camps: For the audience, she performed the electrifying "Stomp" ­ followed by a 30-second unaccompanied lullaby. And she played both with equal commitment ­ again the consummate professional.

Offstage, Vanessa-Mae is more reserved, almost shy. On her first visit to the Middle East, she was full of praise for the cooking, weather and hospitality. "I saw belly dancers last night and that was quite interesting", she said, referring to her evening spent at the Commodore's Kasbah restaurant.

She was accompanied to Lebanon by her 69-year-old grandmother, who, she said, used to tour with her as a chaperone when she was younger.

"She used to be a rock 'n' roll granny", said Vanessa-Mae. "But it's been a year now since she's been with me on the road."

Having launched her career at the age of eight, and with about 10 year's touring experience, Vanessa-Mae said she is no longer bothered by familiar faces in the crowd. "When I was younger I would get really nervous if I looked out and saw relatives or close friends. But now I don't mind", she said.

Although she admits that her age was once a handicap ­ "especially when they saw this young girl playing serious pieces like Tchaikovsky" ­ she slowly found her own pace and focused on what she was doing and what made her happy. Now, she said, she sees advantages in having started out so young: "I have the benefit of so many years' experience and I'm still young enough to look and plan ahead", she explained.

Those plans may include capitalizing on her distinct beauty and sensuality to branch out into acting. In February, she acted in a U.S. network television movie, which will soon air on ABC television. Speaking of her role in "Arabian Nights", in which she plays the princess who marries Aladdin, she said it was the first time she did something which was "separate from 'Vanessa-Mae the musician'."

Even with "Vanessa-Mae the violinist", however, her tastes have also changed, and "are changing as I get older." And while she still feels more comfortable with the classics ­ she is, after all, classically trained ­ she has a growing desire to experiment, to travel further on the path that made her the first classical violinist to make it onto the Billboard Music charts.

The young musician has come a long way from her concert debut in London at the age of 10. At 12, she had toured internationally and had released two classical recordings. But it wasn't until she was 15 that the British-raised performer said she finally looked back to her Chinese roots. That retrospective helped her compose "Happy Valley", which she performed in 1997 for the reunification of Hong Kong and China.

The message of the song, she said, was to show a positive marriage between east and west. "It starts off as a little song of hope and turns into a big dance of joy", she added.

This was a message her Baalbek audience could relate to and they responded with cheers of approval. Whether playing the French "CanCan", Vivaldi's "Four Seasons", Maurice Ravel's "Tzigane", or "Storm", "Hocus Pocus" and "I Feel Love", Vanessa-Mae performed than all with equal expertise and enthusiasm.

It's that excitement and love of her craft that have set her apart. At Baalbek's Jupiter Temple, Vanessa-Mae proved that love has everything to do with it.