Randy Newman and Tori Amos at Baloise Session - 6 November 2015

Two singers, two pianos, two generations. Randy Newman: the raconteur with the self-deprecating wit and the raspy voice. Tori Amos: the firebrand full of passion and fury. Both at the Baloise Session, both charismatic in very different ways.

Randy Newman's set is a masterclass in keeping the audience entertained. Anecdotes and asides are sprinkled in among the songs: "I wrote this for my first wife when I was married to my second wife", he says about I Miss You; "this is a song about a murderer - it's just hit after hit", he deadpans about In Germany Before The War.

His is a storyteller's charm, unhurried and low-key. The music veers from the simpler You Got A Friend In Me from the film "Toy Story" through the now un-PC Short People to the acknowledged erotic absurdity of You Can Leave Your Hat On.

The love songs are sweet, the political songs full of bite. Sail Away about a slave trader is acid-tongued, as is US foreign policy-themed Political Science. In a new song about Putin, he sings "when he takes his shirt off / it drives the ladies crazy / When he takes his shirt off, it makes me want to be a lady". Would any young artist today dare write those lyrics?

Highlights include the audience sing-along to I'm Dead (But I Don't Know It), a self-deprecating nod to ageing; and the evocative I Think It's Going To Rain Today.

It's fair to say that Newman wouldn't win any Best Singer In The World contests, but his seasoned voice suits his storyteller's soul and earns him a standing ovation at the end of his concert.

Tori Amos, on the other hand, would win the contest hands down. Her voice is a thing of beauty, carressing every note; going full pelt, then pulling back; sighing, rasping, adapting to every emotion in each song.  Where Newman is low-key, Amos is all drama.

Amos once said about Kate Bush - who is obviously an influence - that Bush creates sonic paintings for us to walk into. Tori Amos does the same. She paints pictures about being spirited away to a Floating City, about longing (I Can't See New York) and cruelty (Cruel). The latter is a standout: dark and brooding in the vein of Nine Inch Nails and sonically enhanced by a synth drum.

Amos is melodramatic in The Waitress and heart-rending in the fantastic Crucify. Digital Ghost offers up the inspired line "Your heart only beats 1s and 0s" and the beat-driven Talulacloses the set with a bang.

Throughout the concert, Amos switches between her grand piano and her keyboards, sometimes playing both simultaneously, one hand on each instrument, using pedals to modulate the sound, to generate echoes and rhythm. Her playing is so intense that it feels like a whole band is up on stage.

Clearly her music is not to everyone's taste, as evidenced by the people who leave during the show, possibly not quite sure what hit them. To those who stay, and to the hardcore fans who get up and crowd around the stage, Amos delivers the kind of full-blooded musicianship that is irresistible.

- Anna Wirz

More photos of Randy Newman on Flickr.

More photos of Tori Amos on Flickr.