Fiddler on the loose

She’s fast, she’s slick and oh so pert. Like a Ferrari at full throttle, Vanessa Mae’s nimble fingers skitter effortlessly through the entire range of her electric violin’s fretboard – riffing through a wide range of tonal textures previously unheard of in the classical realm.

Out of the hallowed chambers of the concert halls into the kaleidoscopic terrain of modern day MTV, this modern-day Paganini looms larger than life as she suddenly finds herself thrust in the limelight and elevated to almost cult-like pop superstar status.

With seven albums to her credit – from her 1995 debut, The Violin Player, to the more recent Subject to Change (2001) – Vanessa Mae continues to break down musical barriers as she forges ahead with her own brand of virtuosic, fusion-oriented playing.

Blame it on her stars. By sheer coincidence, this stunning Anglaise prodigy shares her birthday (Oct. 27, 1978) with probably the greatest violinist of all time, Nicolo Paganini (1782-1840). Acclaimed for his flawless playing, Paganini was rumored to have sealed a pact with the devil – a myth further propagated by the composer’s frequent allusions to diabolic themes in most of his works, such as the Devil’s Trill.

Myth or not, Paganini would have been proud to see his 20th century heiress confounding her critics and sparking an outrage among some die-hard traditionalists. After all, her current style bears no hint of the calculated riffing she learned as a precocious tot.

Never mind if she honed her technique, first, under the watchful eyes of Prof. Lin Yao Ji at the Beijing-based National Conservatoire of Music, and much later at London’s Royal College of Music. Like the late great jazz saxman Charlie Parker, Vanessa Mae subscribes to the "learn the theory, then forget all about it" approach to musical nirvana.

Just for the curious, her daring, probing fretboard acrobatics have been encapsulated in EMI Music’s latest release, The Best of Vanessa Mae. With its 16 tracks that span seven years and sift through six of her previous releases including The Violin Player and Subject to Change, the new album also boasts of a dance-oriented collaboration with Killing Joke bass player and dance mix-master, Youth, who produced Subject to Change.

In a short phone interview done at EMI Music’s Manila office, Vanessa Mae talked lengthily about her latest project. Unlike most virtuosos who tend to clam up during press briefings, the 23-year-old prodigy rambled on like an eager teener in her clipped, distinctly-Oriental accent.

Asked to elaborate on the choice of songs for her Best of album, she says, "It’s what the fans like. These are the works that I have observed my fans like the best. If I were to be asked to name the songs that I feel represent my best work on record, I’d say I love Hocus Pocus from the Storm album, and virtually everything from Subject to Change."

Despite her classical lineage, Vanessa Mae doesn’t see herself carrying the torch for the traditional classical violin styles passed on by her masters. Even at the risk of earning the ire of her mentors, she still took the plunge and turned the classical world upside down with her blistering and manic brand of fusion playing when she recorded her debut album in 1995.

"I don’t really care if I seem to have offended the purists," asserts the cocky lass. "It’s not good living in a time warp. The world lives on. I’ve never really had that much consideration for traditionalists because I think they’re the ones responsibility for killing music in general."

While not exactly remembered for her verbal derring-do, Vanessa Mae is even more brazen during her live gigs – her every gesture accentuated by a grand display of pyrotechnics, special lighting effects or even an offbeat, unscripted move.

Imagine her, for instance, making her US debut in Times Square, when she hopped spontaneously onto a passing yellow cab as a climax to an explosive performance seen the world over! Talk about spunk!

On another occasion in 1997, she gave the first ever concert on the famed frozen lake of St. Moritz, Switzerland. And guess how she made her entrance? She delta-glided down from 2,400 meters!

Shrugging off the accolades, Vanessa Mae retorts, "It’s part of who I am. A lot of people over-analyze it much more than I do. The music speaks for itself, but if there are these things or props around to help emphasize the show and make it more spectacular, then why not use them?

And despite having been voted one of the 50 Most Beautiful People in the World by People Magazine and one of the World’s Most Beautiful 100 Women by FHM, Vanessa seems the least bit interested in posing for fashion shoots or running down catwalks – although she once created a sensation in Paris when she made her debut at Jean-Paul Gaultier’s show modeling a wedding ensemble while playing her fiddle!

"That was a long time ago!," she reminisces, "I was only 17 then, and every year they have a new set. It was very flattering to have been chosen then but it’s not something that I’d seriously consider."

Again disproving most artists’ tendencies to live like hermits, Vanessa Mae does have time to indulge in romantic liaisons. "Yes, I do have a boyfriend," she proudly asserts. "As a child, you never understand that work is gonna be part of your life, but now, at the end of the day, it’s nice to be able to find time for your personal life. If I didn’t, I’d probably be a very frustrated person."

It’s a pity though we never solved the riddle. Guess who’s playing second fiddle?