Yanni's Concert

As luck would have it, we - my parents and I - managed to book tickets for the Yanni concert, which took place yesterday, good buy indeed :D
The concert took place in Burj Park, in the 'shadow' of the Burj Khalifa and in full view of the fountains.

We got to the venue at 7:15 pm, to be greeted by an enormous queue. Not to mention a whole lot of people who tried to cut in line. The management of the queue, for me, was a big let down. The volunteers seemed to have disappeared elsewhere...this left the management of the lines to a few people who quite literally "Had enough" of the line cutters.
The gates eventually opened at 8 pm, and by 8:45, we were in. Decided to go get seats up front...in the Bronze section of course.

Personally, the Bronze section seemed better than the Gold and Silver sections but paled in comparison to the Platinum section - right in front of the stage.
We were all set with refreshments, waiting in anticipation for the show to begin.

At 10 pm, when the show was slated to begin, I noticed that musicians had begun to place themselves with their instruments.
Typing of which, there was a wide array of instruments: Pianos, a personalised drum kit, other percussion instruments, violins, a trombone, a french horn, a harp, cellos, a keyboard and a base guitar. The musicians themselves were diverse in culture - from Russia, to Cuba and Paraguay.
Yanni then appeared on stage and started off with a composition from his album - Live at the Acropolis. Second best selling album - of all time.
For all of you who aren't familiar with him: Yanni is a Greek musician, real name Yiannis Hrysomallis. A self-taught pianist. "Talented" would be putting it mildly.

Lighthearted, humorous but at the same time passionate about his work, everything showed in his performance. He also got the crowd participating in the songs, by clapping along or cheering for him to come back and perform again.

Amongst the songs performed were: Acroyali, Santorini, Keys to Imagination, One Man's Dream, Felitsa and Nightingale.

The fellow musicians themselves were some of the most talented individuals I have seen. The drummer - Charlie Adams - was energetic, lively and a comedian at heart, taunting the audience when we couldn't keep up with his drumming :P

Then was Alexander Zhiroff, on the cello. Very deep music indeed.

Victor Espinola was on the Harp. I've always associated harps with the more 'angelic' side of things. He blew all that away with an energetic and downright amazing performance.

Then of course, were the violinists, crown jewels of the performance. Armen Movsessian and Ann Marie Simpson. Armen showed pure mastership of the violin, even engaging Ann Marie in a duet-turned-to-duel on stage. Both of them just bought that depth into each composition.

And last but not least [Forgive the hackneyed phrase] was Yanni, who kept jumping around to the music and switching between pianos.

All in all, it was a memorable performance, one that I won't be forgetting for a long time.
Yanni closed the performance with "One Man's Dream", preceded by a short word on his belief in the human spirit. With words of encouragement, to follow dreams and be what you wish to be.

He also mentioned what a loud and receptive audience we had been, hinting that he'd be back next year.

Yanni, Dubai awaits you with open arms :)