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USHER
HALL, EDINBURGH
15th November, 2004
WINTER
TOUR 2004 - Part 3
REVIEW
After an
eight-hour journey, I found myself in Edinburgh! Unlike the
first two concerts, this one was not scheduled to begin until
8 o’clock.
The
conductor took up his customary pose with the baton raised high,
violins were tucked beneath chins, and hands were poised above
keyboards. This struck me as being an unnecessary refinement
considering the opening number on the previous two nights had
begun with Hayley singing unaccompanied! Tonight, however, there
was an additional item at the beginning of the programme.
Two
notes were all it took for me to recognise the simple but delightful
theme of Pachelbel’s Canon in D. I have long admired this work
but have never seen it performed live so this was an unexpected
but very welcome treat. As the applause died down, Hayley took
the stage and sang “Amazing Grace” and the programme from then
on was as it had been in Birmingham and Cardiff.
I
will now pick up the programme where I left off in my Cardiff
review with Mario Frangoulis leaving the stage having won the
hearts of the audience with his superb performance which concluded
with the delightful song, “Here’s To The Heroes”.
Hayley
returned and sang the ever-popular “Mary Did You Know?”. She
explained that this song appears on the bonus disc of the re-released
version of Pure and that it was on sale in the foyer! This speech
was interspersed with typical Hayley giggles!
Hayley
ended the first half with an amazing rendition of “In Trutina”.
Of course, there is a brief moment of total silence in between
verses and it always concerns me that somebody will make the
mistake of applauding at this point. Thankfully on this tour,
no-one has done so yet. I think that signifies how familiar
everyone is with the songs from Pure, which, in turn, confirms
its amazing popularity.
When
I spoke to Hayley after the show, she immediately said, “I got
it wrong again, didn’t I?” This referred to her announcement
about her exams. Although she had mentioned having to wait until
February for the results, the wording had not been exactly as
it was in Birmingham. I judged that my “spontaneous” response
of “you’ll do fine (as originally suggested by Kirsty), would
not have been totally appropriate and so I had not called out,
hence Hayley’s realisation that she must have got the wording
wrong. We agreed that, if she got it exactly right during the
remainder of the tour, I will do so. We shall see!
I
briefly met Mario Frangoulis who said how much he was enjoying
the tour. He joked that he had had a frog in his throat during
the Birmingham concert but I assured him that his voice had
sounded fine.
I
also spoke at length to Fiona Pears who plays first violin.
Each night, she opens the second half with a solo spot which
has to be seen to be believed. I told her that the audiences
clearly adore her. I described her performance as being “spirited,
fiery and very exciting”. Towards the end of the set, she dances
around the stage as she plays. The audience really love this
– and the more she dances, the more they love it. She seems
to be responding to this gradually by dancing with increased
enthusiasm and energy each night. And each night, the audience
love her more and more. What will happen on the last night,
I wonder?
Steve
then called me and told me some wildly exciting news. I later
discovered that Hayley seems really pleased about it too. You’ll
see what that’s all about in my review of Llandudno. See you
there?
Roger Mansbridge
16th November 2004
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