2/20/03
André Rieu Almost Had To Let His Orchestra Go
André Rieu almost went under due to a dream. His tour through Australia in 2008 almost did him and his orchestra in. "I do not mind dying poor," says the 60 year old violin virtuoso, "but it came too close, to the point that I almost had to dismiss all my orchestra members. It was really too intense".Dressed in a long elegant coat, umbrella above his head, André Rieu is waiting for me in a snow shower at the train station of Maastricht. The immaculately dressed gentleman is quite noticeable in the city which is still full of Carnival atmosphere. "My financial adviser predicted all this. The year end financial figures are now out and there will be a storm of comments."
André gallantly opened the door of his Mercedes. He waves to a seemingly lost person dressed up as a dance puppet in thick tights who is being supported by a person dressed up as a drummer wearing a party hat. They look at him empathically. All of Maastricht sympathizes with their fellow citizen, who this year will turn the Vrijthof no less than Eight Times upside down.
This is the only interview he has given over his now happily passed dramatic low point of his financial situation. "The crazy thing is. I have been able to process everything. It's now sixteen months later and we are almost even. I am also a little proud of that. We were so deeply in debt that we needed a loan of 23 million Euros from the Rabobank. Now almost everything has been repaid. Quietly we crept along the edge of the abyss. It could have been be a tragedy, but it is past now."
On the way to his stately work castle he speaks relaxed while steering through the city. "If we had spent 23 million Euros hanging posters throughout the world, we would not have had a greater marketing effect as we do now. I have to admit: it was very extreme. I had to promise Marjorie and the gentlemen from the bank that I will never do that again. But the world is now at our feet. We are even negotiating a Major Tour through America. Michael Jackson's manager and the gentleman from the record company were here this week."
"My son Pierre arranged everything. He said they will come here, we do not have to go there for an audition. That way they are really interested. Pierre has the business talent, I am the dreamer. The intent is to perform in Forty Stadiums in America where we can place the Schönbrunn Castle."
Weren't These Castles The Cause of Your Financial Problems?
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"Correct, but they are already built, yes? Close by I have seven million Euros worth steel stored. We now even have three castles. A prototype and two that are more automated and require less manpower to build. The millions were flying out the door. There was no holding back. And at the end we still had to build one more castle because we could not transport the things fast enough from one side of Australia to the other. Well, there went another three million Euros. And then we had to swallow some more, because a beautiful castle made out of Styrofoam was rejected by the fire department. We paid a thousand for a foam press we purchased. Well, that was only the beginning."
In his own castle, sitting by the crackling fireplace in elegant French furniture, André Rieu ponders for a moment. He points to an oval table with about eight chairs around it. "That's where the bankers were. They came from Utrecht, the gentlemen from Maastricht could do no more for us. We talked for an entire day. It was just prior to the beginning of the Australian tour. I needed a lot more money so I could go. We had to go, we had sold 270,000 tickets. Everything was ready. Yes, everything was perfect. We flew the Viennese ballet over, six white Lipizzaner horses, we had a Golden Carriage, fountains were built just like the real ones in front of the Schönbrunn Castle. There were people who asked me, did you really need the ballet from Vienna? Aren't there also dancers in Australia? And Ivo Niehe, who came along to Melbourne, was amazed that I had perfect tenors in the show, but I'm a perfectionist. I wanted to achieve my dreams and leave the people breathless. That again was achieved".
Continuation: "Pierre wants to make his father happy. And will do everything possible to make the stories in my head a realization. But with this project, I might have gone a bit too far. He was stressed out quite a bit by all this work. Instinctively I also felt that I gone too far. When we had to bring the bankers here, I said to Marjorie, "I do not have to die rich", but now I see that it is nice to have some money for our care for when we are old. As long as I do not need to go to a nursing home, where a lovely nurse determines if and when I should go to the toilet".
André Rieu ponders on, "One of the bankers suggested that we should cancel the tour to Australia and not go. But that was not possible. There was already so much money invested, the tickets were sold. If we had not gone, we all would definitely have gone bankrupt and I would have to let every one go. And then I would have had no means to earn everything back. I would just be back at square one. Twenty years ago I had a job with the Limburg Symphony Orchestra and an ordinary house, that was then my future. So now I had to give everything I owned as collateral, the Real Estate, the Cars, the Articles, the Stradivarius ... I was totally stripped. But there was still a Six Million Euro deficit."
He smiles triumphantly, "The bankers moaned and I thought, it is now or never. In half an hour's time I managed to get six million euros together via the telephone. I managed to get Three Million out of my Recording Company since I could shift the rights of a number of DVD's to them. And I called my German Promoter and said, "Is it worth Three Million Euros to you if I sign for an additional three years?" I immediately received a resounding "yes". That sort of made the bankers take note, but they did not immediately say that was alright. They let us sweat for about four days."
Were You Able To Sleep During Those Days?
"I always sleep. I can very easily turn my thoughts off. Even just before a concert I take a nap because I feel I should give my energy to the orchestra. That way we all can give a new top performance. You might do some strange thinking though. I came to the conclusion that losing money and things were not the worst that could happen. Marjorie and the boys were still here, but I have to admit, it really was a little too exciting. When the "yes" answer was received from Utrecht, we did raise a glass. Nothing exorbitant because the great recovery had to begin. They told me very sternly, "now you have to play a few years longer Mr. Rieu, but I was already planning to do that. And so we received a double stroke of luck. We sold more tickets than expected, the DVD sales were great. We could constantly maintain 11 million above our limit of 23 million. And now, thanks to a bumper year last year, I'm almost completely out of debt.".
."The Orchestra Members did not notice how bad the financial situation was. I told them everything, but it was I alone who took the entire risk. I did not ask them whether they wanted to play for less or anything like that. I was responsible and they trusted me. This has made our orchestra even closer."
.André Rieu even put up his Stradivarius as collateral. "I was being positive. I was counting on possibly buying her back in a few years. And no matter how much I love that violin, it is and remains only a thing. Actually it is one of the
last violins made by the violin master, Stradivarius. It was built in 1732 and is a larger violin. I already had a Stradivarius, which was much smaller, from his earlier years. During the course of his career Stradivarius developed larger instruments because the rooms were becoming larger and louder acoustics were needed from the body. I brought my violin back to the dealer in Vienna and he put a sales price of Three Million Euros on it. I had secretly added One Million to the bank's imposed value of Two Million since naturally, I really did not want to part with it, and I got to keep it".He shrugs his shoulders, "When we started doing well fifteen years ago, I could have my pick amongst the violins. A week after the death of Yehudi Menuhin, I had his violin right here in my house, but this instrument I found was too classical, too serious, too cold. My violin is melodious and warm, more suited for the waltz."
André Rieu chuckles, "It is not really the first time that I have given everything as collateral to the bank. In the very beginning it was all about eighty thousand guilders. That was for my first sound system when I was still traveling with the Salon Orchestra, and went to perform in all sort of parties.
It only took one month, but even the birds in the aviary belonged to the bank".
What Is The Difference Between Your Misfortune and That of Marco Borsato? "I almost totally blundered on the Castles I built, but the eccentric decorations have made for so much publicity that I am now on the U.S. lists as the Best Selling Male Artist in The World. Marco's Company bought other companies that did not do too well. I stayed my course with something I could do well. Now that Marco is doing that too, he is doing much better."
André Rieu promised he will never again build Castles, but son Pierre is now working to see if he can reproduce the entire Vrijthof. André Rieu chuckles, "That's right, this year I will perform Eight Times in the Open Air on The Vrijthof. Marjorie has said, and rightly so, that I obviously cannot always be lucky with the weather. In Brisbane we nearly lost another 3 million because we almost had to cancel due to a storm, but it stopped blowing. Anyway, we are now looking at what we can do inside the Congress Center of the MECC in Maastricht. Pierre has already built a piece of the Vrijthof, it could cost as much as 1 Million Euros, but that of course is way too much. Pierre is now working with sponsors. He wants to save his father from another financial dilemma."
The violin virtuoso smiles, "Marjorie's father was a Jewish fugitive. During his life, he lost his entire fortune twice. Once in World War I and once in World War II and his life was in danger. That is no comparison to what we have experienced." ... By Wilma Nanninga
5/21/02
Music Changes Lives- the Hout Bay Music Project and André Rieu
Maastricht, Netherlands, July 2010
Lwazi Mkula, aged 18, greets a visitor in the bustling lobby of the Vrijthof Theatre in Maastricht, Netherlands on a warm summer evening. A courteous young man with a level gaze, Mr. Mkula was born under apartheid in South Africa. Since joining the tiny Hout Bay Music Project seven years ago, however, his life has taken a remarkable direction thanks to remarkable teachers and his dedication to classical music studies. Today, Mr. Mkula is the first member of his family to attend college. At Cape Town University, he is majoring in music and law, and is teaching younger children at the same Music Project in the Eastern Cape Informal Township that is his home. By all accounts, he would not be where he is today without the support and music education he received at the Hout Bay Music Project.
At the moment, however, Mr. Mkula has other immediate things on his hands. Streaming into the Theatre close on his heels come a gaggle of energetic children, supervised by a few exhausted-looking adults. After a day of playing football outdoors at a nearby Limburg farm, these young members of the Hout Bay Music Project need to have dinner, focus their attention and prepare for their featured role in this evening’s concert on the Vrijthof plaza in Maastricht, with world-famous Dutch violinist André Rieu and his Johann Strauss Orchestra.
Maastricht is known as the most Burgundian of cities in the Netherlands, with its multicultural history, large international population and a love of gatherings of any kind. The fact that it is also the home town of Mr. Rieu, who grew up in Maastricht and still lives there, makes it the perfect location for this lively concert series that dominates the old section of the city for two weeks in the summer and thousands of attracts visitors from all over the world. André Rieu and the Orchestra are well known for their ability to get the audience on their feet, singing along and dancing in the aisles. What might be less expected is that a small group of children between the ages of nine and eighteen, from a rural area of the Eastern Cape, would also be so joyfully confident performing in front of an audience of 10,000 each night during the concert series titled “My African Dream”.
RANGING FROM ENTHUSIASTIC TO IRREPRESSIBLE
The Hout Bay Music Project Trust, like most successful creations, is based on a brilliantly simple idea - that music changes lives. A non-profit organization founded in 2003 by Leanne Dollman, a cheerful young woman with an infectious laugh, the Project now provides music education, life skills training and preparation for British Music Examinations to about 100 children in the Imizamo Yethu Settlement and Hangberg Harbor community in Hout Bay, South Africa. The Project offers daily music classes in a former bowling green clubhouse in Hout Bay, or outside on the grass. Every day, students experience the joy of music through classes in violin, cello, double bass, marimba and drums, as well as training in dance, singing and life skills. The Project is proud of its 100% pass rate in all practical and theoretical examinationsthrough the Associated Board of the Royal School of Music, UK, which has helped the first cohort of students enter university this past year.
A classically trained violinist who has performed as a freelance artist with symphonies and chamber groups, Ms. Dollman tells an interviewer she initially “wanted to teach about 3-4 children.” In 2003, she visited the Moravian Primary School in the Imizamo Yethu Informal Township to talk about starting a small afterschool program. As she relates the story, all of the students were gathered and standing outside the school. When asked by their principal how many students would be interested in learning to play the violin, all 800 children enthusiastically replied that they would! Ms. Dollman explains that music is a big part of the culture for these students, who speak Xhosa “click” language at home as well as Afrikaans and English. The children, who at that time were mostly still living in shacks in this rural area on the Eastern Cape, thought they would each get a violin. She laughs as she describes the school principal’s initial puzzlement at her plans to teach 800 students without having any instruments available for them at all!
Ms. Dollman persisted and obtained Chinese violins made from kits. Initially she started teaching about 25-30 children, and now has 100 students ranging in age from three years old to 18, some of whom have studied music for six to seven years. With the growth and success of the program, the Project now has two other part-time faculty who teach double bass and cello. One faculty member, John Ntsepe is the first Black pianist with a Master’s Degree in Music in South Africa. In addition, a Dutch violin teacher will spend the next year in South Africa on a fellowship. The Music Project has gained a degree of renown in South Africa, has enlisted consistent supporters including Trevor Manuel, Minister in The Presidency, and has performed for G-20 Summits and other high-profile events. Fundraising and paying for staff and instruments remains a constant challenge for the independent non-profit.
Ms. Dollman describes being contacted by a member of Mr. Rieu’s staff during the Johann Strauss Orchestra’s first South African tour, in May of 2010. The Maestro and several staff and orchestra members visited the little music school between concerts. The children performed some music and dance numbers, and Mr. Rieu and his entourage were charmed and invited to the entire group to Maastricht to perform with the orchestra in July. The fact that the students were not sure where Maastricht was located, or even Holland for that matter, did not dampen anyone’s enthusiasm.
The next two months were filled with the challenge of obtaining passports for the children, many of whom had never been registered at birth, and many of whose parents had never married. Despite Mr. Rieu’s speaking with the Dutch Prime Minister to enlist his help in expediting the passports, Ms. Dollman and a lawyer friend spent countless hours knocking on doors of homes that lacked telephones to gather the necessary paperwork. Finally, 20 children and five adults arrived in the Netherlands on July 6, 2010 to start rehearsals for the series of performances on the Vrijthof Plaza.
When asked how the children reacted to traveling in Europe for the first time, Ms. Dollman smiles and quotes Project supporter David Juritz, Director of Musequality UK, who says they "range from enthusiastic to irrepressible”. She says the children enjoyed not only performing in the Netherlands but also the catered meals (very different from the mostly meat they usually eat at home), staying on a farm and visiting local attractions courtesy of André Rieu. Ms. Dollman expresses her gratitude to the generosity of the Rieu organization, which not only brought the Music Project to the Netherlands for the concert series but also plans to continue to help them with instrument donations and other ongoing support and collaboration during future South African tours.
Ms. Dollman says that Mr. Rieu had spoken to the City Council in Hout Bay to assist with putting up more buildings for classrooms, and had also said in television interviews that he plans to start a miniature Johann Strauss Orchestra for the children. It remains to be seen whether Rieu, who constantly tours several continents with his 55-piece orchestra and issues several chart-topping recordings each year will be able to devote that much time to the fledgling orchestra himself. This is, after all, a tiny non-profit with little government support, very unlike the wildly successful “El Sistema” that was started in Venezuela and now is being replicated in the United States. But Mr. Rieu’s interest in making music more accessible for all in South Africa seems genuine, and it is possible that the grassroots nature of the Hout Bay Music Project is its greatest strength as it enables it to attract a variety of supporters while retaining its original form.
“A Very Emotional Tour” ...
In June 2010, during the Johann Strauss Orchestra’s American tour, André Rieu described their first engagement in South Africa, just a month before, as “a very emotional tour”. In a prior promotional visit to South Africa, Mr. Rieu had sensed racial imbalance, and decided to recruit a Black South African soprano to join the South African tour. After viewing her audition tape, the Maestro brought the classically-trained Kimi Skota to Maastricht for rehearsals. Rieu proudly stated of the shy young woman with the operatic voice “I discovered her.”
However, the white supremacist Terre Blanche had been murdered just two weeks before the Orchestra arrived in Durban, and Rieu was not sure how Ms. Skota and the Orchestra would be received. Rieu described himself as being “very nervous” until Ms. Skota stepped on stage, at which point the audience gave her a standing ovation before she even started singing.
Mr. Rieu said that his wife Marjorie had asked the singer during rehearsals, “Don’t you know a song that everyone knows, both Black and white?” Kimi Skota had chosen a lullaby that Black nannies used to sing to the white babies in their care. As Rieu described it, he looked out into the auditorium during the first concert in Durban and “the whole audience was crying. So of course, seeing that, we started crying too!” The concert series was a smash hit, and Mr. Rieu felt he had achieved his goal in South Africa, that of bringing people together to enjoy music regardless of color. He decided to engage Ms. Skota for the American tour and beyond. And he decided to bring the Hout Bay Music Project to Maastricht, along with the Bloemfontein Children’s Choir to support the Michael Jackson song “Heal the World”. The series of concerts in Rieu’s home town of Maastricht began to take shape, under the title “My African Dream.”
MY AFRICAN DREAM
Back on the steps of the elegant Vrijthof Theatre in Maastricht, music fans from many countries have gathered on this balmy summer evening, awaiting the start of one of the annual outdoor concerts on the huge plaza. Cameras ready, fans chatter in many languages as they hope to catch a glimpse of the famous violinist and a few members of his orchestra. A sudden shower, however, sends them scurrying for shelter; some make their way into the lobby of the Theatre where they are met with piercing and joyful singing, whooping and clapping that echoes from above. Voices of children swell in distinctly African tonalities as they rehearse on a loggia above the lobby. Next they break into a rousing rendition of “The Lion Sleeps Tonight”, with handclaps and African drums. The Hout Bay Music Project is warming up.
The rain passes and the fans make their way outside again. Maestro Rieu and a few elegantly-dressed musicians from his orchestra step out and begin tuning their instruments. Cameras click and fans smile and wave. Rieu staff members hover nearby, along with members of a German television crew filming the concert. Each musician tunes his or her instrument in turn to Mr. Rieu’s Stradivarius. Just above the Theatre entrance, the children from the Hout Bay Music Project are clustered on a balcony, shyly regarding the crowd below. Their faces are decorated for the performance with tribal markings. When they spy a couple with a South African flag, the children wave and their countrymen wave back. As Maestro Rieu passes the crowd on his way to the stage, he salutes the South African couple as well. Eric and Marie Dyer of Durban tell a visitor “Mr. Rieu has a very kind heart” for assisting the Hout Bay Music Project. They quote a South African promoter who said that “André Rieu is not aware of the happiness he has brought to South Africa” with his recent concert series.
By 11:00 p.m. that night, the rousing concert is almost halfway through. The sun had come out again and then slowly set in a long midsummer sunset. The huge audience has already been on their feet several times, for lovely clarinet and cello solos, a lively version of “O Sole Mio” by the Platin Tenors, and a moving rendition of “Ave Maria” by Kimi Skota, complete with a projected backdrop of stained glass windows. With visible pride, Maestro Rieu introduces the Hout Bay Music Project from South Africa and describes how impressed he is by their “talent and enthusiasm.”
Holding their instruments and wearing colorful outfits and headbands, the children file onstage and begin to play. They perform a creditable rendition (for their ages) of the Pachelbel Canon in D, with assistance from Ms. Dollman and a few members of the Johann Strauss Orchestra strings section. For the final few bars, the younger children join in softly on African drums. Next, they turn up the heat. The group breaks into African song, dance and drumming numbers which bring the audience to their feet again. One lively girl of twelve mesmerizes the audience with her natural solo voice and African dance moves. Against a backdrop of an African sunset, the song “My African Dream” led by sopranos and tenors, with the Music Project and Bloemfontein Children’s Choir ranged across the front of the stage, is cheered by the huge audience.
After the concert, Eric and Marie Dyer from Durban said “We enjoyed the show tremendously. We were particularly touched by the African theme coming from South Africa. There were many tears during the show.” The collaboration between the European orchestra, originally known for its popular renditions of Strauss waltzes, and the South African children studying European classical music appeared to be a rousing success.
THE FUTURE FOR THE HOUT BAY MUSIC PROJECT
The Hout Bay Music Project appears to have a future as bright as that of the children who study there. Thomas Diamandis, the choreographer for André Rieu who worked with many children’s choirs in three continents during the orchestra’s recent tours, feels the Hout Bay Music Project is something special and has a big future in the music world. He says the Project “is just amazing ... there are no words to explain it ... and as performers they remain in your mind.”
Upcoming plans for the Hout Bay Music Project include a collaboration with the composer Michael Blake, who will compose a piece about the history of the Hout Bay area, with the students composing a part of it. In October 2010, the students participated in the Spielhaus Fesitval at the St. Polten Theatre in Austria, which includes 300 children from all around Europe. And in March of 2011 André Rieu and the Johann Strauss Orchestra, with guest artists likely to include the Hout Bay Music Project, will appear again in Cape Town where Nelson Mandela spoke at the end of apartheid 16 years ago.
- Jennifer Dawson writes about children in the arts, and is based in Boston, USA.
1/1/02
André Rieu From Choir Boy To Violin Idol
Ode To The Worlds Biggest Artist
Dec. 2009
As far as I know, the book is released only in the Dutch language and it is not an André Rieu production. It was for sale in the Netherlands in book/magazine stores and supermarkets.
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Below are some rare and different photos
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12/19/01
From The Sunday Times, UK
December 20, 2009 by Tim cooper
André Rieu ~ the biggest violinist you've never heard of. He’s bigger than Springsteen and has a bodyguard for his Stradivarius, so why is the Dutch musicial so little known?
As showbiz entrances go, it could hardly be more spectacular. A procession of musicians in lavish period costumes parade through a football stadium packed with 25,000 fans, to the tune of 76 Trombones. At their head, “conducting’” them with a violin bow as they wend their way towards a colossal replica of a Hapsburg palace that takes up an entire side of the stadium, is a tall man in formal attire, sporting a tail coat, a mullety mane of grey hair and an enormous grin.
And well might he grin. Because this is André Rieu, the so-called King of Waltz and the biggest-grossing male music performer in the world. In Billboard magazine’s summer list of the top 25 tours of the year, he lay in fourth place, behind Madonna, Britney and Tina Turner, and ahead of Céline Dion, AC/DC, Bruce Springsteen and Elton John. He had grossed more than £35m — double the takings of Coldplay — and been seen by more than 550,000 people. Six months later, his 30th Anniversary Tour of Europe tops the magazine’s Hot Tour rankings.
Yet, unless you caught his spot on the Royal Variety Performance earlier this month, when he arrived in Blackpool by private jet with an entourage of more than 100 including the bodyguard whose sole duty it is to baby-sit his £2m Stradivarius you will probably never have heard of him.
So, who is André Rieu? He’s a 60-year-old Dutchman who lives in a castle and loves the waltz. And he has a dream: “To make classical music accessible to everyone.” He’s doing a pretty good job so far: with album and DVD sales of 30m, his Johann Strauss Orchestra is the most successful in the world.
Rieu grew up in a musical family in the Catholic part of Holland, began learning the violin at five and once thought of becoming a priest “but then girls became too interesting”, before joining his conductor father’s orchestra. Yet even as a child, he found the atmosphere of the concert hall stiflingly sombre. “Everybody looked so serious,” he says. “The music radiated joy, but you were not supposed to cough or laugh.”
Noticing that the one time the audience loosened up was at the end of concerts, when the orchestra would play crowd-pleasing waltzes, he decided to dedicate his life to the music of 19th-century Vienna — and to pleasing crowds. He started modestly, with a string quintet, before setting up his own Johann Strauss Orchestra, gradually building a reputation for his increasingly lavish stage shows.
What is remarkable about Rieu is that, while obviously an accomplished violinist, he does not show off his virtuosity with solos, preferring to play second fiddle to his orchestra and singers. Not that he takes a back seat; far from it. Rieu is the master of ceremonies, whether conducting with his bow — in the style of Strauss himself —spinning yarns or cracking jokes, each punch line signalled with a trademark smirk and a well-rehearsed eyebrow-wiggling trick. And, while he would never meddle with his beloved waltzes, he is happy to pander to popular taste by peppering his repertoire with familiar arias, show tunes and popular songs.
His huge audience is made up mostly of middle-aged couples who would rather sit in front of the television watching Strictly Come Dancing than hold their breath during a diminuendo at a Wigmore Hall recital; indeed, many of them spontaneously get up and take a twirl down the aisles during his show. Which is why, a decade after a failed attempt to break through in the UK, Universal Music is relaunching him with a collection of waltzes called Forever Vienna.
“This is music that appeals to a post-Strictly audience of people in their fifties and sixties who enjoy Andrea Bocelli and the Priests, and watch period dramas on Sunday evening,” says Mark Wilkinson, general manager of Decca Records. In that intervening decade, there has been a huge growth in the popularity of “classical crossover” music, making stars of singers such as Russell Watson and Katherine Jenkins. “Crossover has created a new audience of people who did not think they liked classical music,” says John Evans, editor of Classic FM magazine. “They like schmaltz, they like a visual element to their music and they like popular tunes that send you into the night humming and feeling good. It’s not an alternative to what you would hear at Wigmore Hall, but anything that breaks down the barriers between ordinary folk and stuffy old classical music is a good thing, in my view.”
James Inverne, editor of the more seriously inclined Gramophone magazine, agrees that Rieu’s appeal is as much about the spectacle of his shows as the familiarity of the music or the virtuosity of the playing. “It’s a kind of classical circus, with an element of knockabout comedy,” he says, “but he is obviously very good at what he does, and people clearly love it.”
While some purists might sneer at the “showbiz” nature of Rieu’s performances, with their curious blend of schmaltz and slapstick, Rieu argues that his presentation of orchestral waltz music is entirely in keeping with Strauss himself, who preferred performing in public parks to exclusive salons attended by royalty and aristocrats. Not that Strauss ever produced a pantomime bull like the one that appears at Rieu’s concerts to chase a buxom woman in a red dress down the aisle. “I think classical music has lost its common touch,” Rieu says in his perfect English, the morning after showing off his perfect French during a recent show in Paris. “It is very easy to say to the audience that they don’t know anything about classical music, and that is what a lot of classical musicians do. The way that they perform the music is often exclusive and excluding. They use the music to say, ‘I am better than you.’ I say, ‘Bring your heart and not your brains or your knowledge."
Yet he baulks at the suggestion that he is populist. “I don’t think what I do is populism. I give myself what I want, not what people want,” he insists. “I play that music in a way I want to play. I don’t change the music: I play it as it should be played. And I take my job seriously.”
Rieu is a hugely charismatic man, with the aplomb to stride into a meeting at the mayor’s office in Paris wearing blue suede shoes, hands thrust deep into the pockets of a full-length blue suede coat, to discuss a planned concert beneath the Eiffel Tower. He has always had a flair for the flamboyant. Growing up in a household that banned pop music, he adopted his own uniform of “romantic Mozart-style clothes”. He recalls: “I remember my Greek teacher asking me, ‘Where is your horse?"
At school, he was exposed to Bob Dylan and the Beatles, but they do not seem to have left much impression. And, although he is an admirer of Queen and Michael Jackson to whom he pays homage in a rather cringey section of his show, with a violin version of Ben, followed by a wailing woman giving Earth Song the full Mariah — you sense it is for their showmanship, rather than their music and lyrics. In fact, he says he never listens to lyrics; indeed, never listens to music when he is not working. And boy, does he work hard. For the past three decades, he has performed 120 shows a year, without missing a single one. “I am never ill,” beams Rieu, who thinks illness is “all in the mind”.
For his monstrous tour A Romantic Night in Vienna, featuring the largest-ever transportable stage set, Rieu remortgaged his castle and 1667 Stradivarius to re-create the atmosphere of a Viennese royal ball. He constructed not one but two lavish life-size models of the Schönbrunn Palace and filled them with musicians, singers, ballroom dancers, skaters, fountains, and a golden coach containing actors representing the Emperor Franz Joseph and Empress Sisi, drawn by six — yes! — white horses. He lost millions, because the first set was rejected by health-and-safety officials. He then had two more replicas made and shipped them out to Australia, where his popularity is such that he has had the ultimate accolade: a guest spot in Neighbours.
But the stage set proved too big to fit through the doors of a stadium in Perth. Rieu admits that the takings of his current tour merely go towards paying back the losses from his Vienna extravaganza. Then he unveils a plan whose cost would put even that in the shade. “One of my dreams is to go to the moon,” he says, “and give the first moon concert.”
Festive Concert with André Rieu is on Five on December 27; Forever Vienna is out on CD on December 28
December 20, 2009 by Tim cooper
André Rieu ~ the biggest violinist you've never heard of. He’s bigger than Springsteen and has a bodyguard for his Stradivarius, so why is the Dutch musicial so little known?
As showbiz entrances go, it could hardly be more spectacular. A procession of musicians in lavish period costumes parade through a football stadium packed with 25,000 fans, to the tune of 76 Trombones. At their head, “conducting’” them with a violin bow as they wend their way towards a colossal replica of a Hapsburg palace that takes up an entire side of the stadium, is a tall man in formal attire, sporting a tail coat, a mullety mane of grey hair and an enormous grin.
And well might he grin. Because this is André Rieu, the so-called King of Waltz and the biggest-grossing male music performer in the world. In Billboard magazine’s summer list of the top 25 tours of the year, he lay in fourth place, behind Madonna, Britney and Tina Turner, and ahead of Céline Dion, AC/DC, Bruce Springsteen and Elton John. He had grossed more than £35m — double the takings of Coldplay — and been seen by more than 550,000 people. Six months later, his 30th Anniversary Tour of Europe tops the magazine’s Hot Tour rankings.
Yet, unless you caught his spot on the Royal Variety Performance earlier this month, when he arrived in Blackpool by private jet with an entourage of more than 100 including the bodyguard whose sole duty it is to baby-sit his £2m Stradivarius you will probably never have heard of him.
So, who is André Rieu? He’s a 60-year-old Dutchman who lives in a castle and loves the waltz. And he has a dream: “To make classical music accessible to everyone.” He’s doing a pretty good job so far: with album and DVD sales of 30m, his Johann Strauss Orchestra is the most successful in the world.
Rieu grew up in a musical family in the Catholic part of Holland, began learning the violin at five and once thought of becoming a priest “but then girls became too interesting”, before joining his conductor father’s orchestra. Yet even as a child, he found the atmosphere of the concert hall stiflingly sombre. “Everybody looked so serious,” he says. “The music radiated joy, but you were not supposed to cough or laugh.”
Noticing that the one time the audience loosened up was at the end of concerts, when the orchestra would play crowd-pleasing waltzes, he decided to dedicate his life to the music of 19th-century Vienna — and to pleasing crowds. He started modestly, with a string quintet, before setting up his own Johann Strauss Orchestra, gradually building a reputation for his increasingly lavish stage shows.
What is remarkable about Rieu is that, while obviously an accomplished violinist, he does not show off his virtuosity with solos, preferring to play second fiddle to his orchestra and singers. Not that he takes a back seat; far from it. Rieu is the master of ceremonies, whether conducting with his bow — in the style of Strauss himself —spinning yarns or cracking jokes, each punch line signalled with a trademark smirk and a well-rehearsed eyebrow-wiggling trick. And, while he would never meddle with his beloved waltzes, he is happy to pander to popular taste by peppering his repertoire with familiar arias, show tunes and popular songs.
His huge audience is made up mostly of middle-aged couples who would rather sit in front of the television watching Strictly Come Dancing than hold their breath during a diminuendo at a Wigmore Hall recital; indeed, many of them spontaneously get up and take a twirl down the aisles during his show. Which is why, a decade after a failed attempt to break through in the UK, Universal Music is relaunching him with a collection of waltzes called Forever Vienna.
“This is music that appeals to a post-Strictly audience of people in their fifties and sixties who enjoy Andrea Bocelli and the Priests, and watch period dramas on Sunday evening,” says Mark Wilkinson, general manager of Decca Records. In that intervening decade, there has been a huge growth in the popularity of “classical crossover” music, making stars of singers such as Russell Watson and Katherine Jenkins. “Crossover has created a new audience of people who did not think they liked classical music,” says John Evans, editor of Classic FM magazine. “They like schmaltz, they like a visual element to their music and they like popular tunes that send you into the night humming and feeling good. It’s not an alternative to what you would hear at Wigmore Hall, but anything that breaks down the barriers between ordinary folk and stuffy old classical music is a good thing, in my view.”
James Inverne, editor of the more seriously inclined Gramophone magazine, agrees that Rieu’s appeal is as much about the spectacle of his shows as the familiarity of the music or the virtuosity of the playing. “It’s a kind of classical circus, with an element of knockabout comedy,” he says, “but he is obviously very good at what he does, and people clearly love it.”
While some purists might sneer at the “showbiz” nature of Rieu’s performances, with their curious blend of schmaltz and slapstick, Rieu argues that his presentation of orchestral waltz music is entirely in keeping with Strauss himself, who preferred performing in public parks to exclusive salons attended by royalty and aristocrats. Not that Strauss ever produced a pantomime bull like the one that appears at Rieu’s concerts to chase a buxom woman in a red dress down the aisle. “I think classical music has lost its common touch,” Rieu says in his perfect English, the morning after showing off his perfect French during a recent show in Paris. “It is very easy to say to the audience that they don’t know anything about classical music, and that is what a lot of classical musicians do. The way that they perform the music is often exclusive and excluding. They use the music to say, ‘I am better than you.’ I say, ‘Bring your heart and not your brains or your knowledge."
Yet he baulks at the suggestion that he is populist. “I don’t think what I do is populism. I give myself what I want, not what people want,” he insists. “I play that music in a way I want to play. I don’t change the music: I play it as it should be played. And I take my job seriously.”
Rieu is a hugely charismatic man, with the aplomb to stride into a meeting at the mayor’s office in Paris wearing blue suede shoes, hands thrust deep into the pockets of a full-length blue suede coat, to discuss a planned concert beneath the Eiffel Tower. He has always had a flair for the flamboyant. Growing up in a household that banned pop music, he adopted his own uniform of “romantic Mozart-style clothes”. He recalls: “I remember my Greek teacher asking me, ‘Where is your horse?"
At school, he was exposed to Bob Dylan and the Beatles, but they do not seem to have left much impression. And, although he is an admirer of Queen and Michael Jackson to whom he pays homage in a rather cringey section of his show, with a violin version of Ben, followed by a wailing woman giving Earth Song the full Mariah — you sense it is for their showmanship, rather than their music and lyrics. In fact, he says he never listens to lyrics; indeed, never listens to music when he is not working. And boy, does he work hard. For the past three decades, he has performed 120 shows a year, without missing a single one. “I am never ill,” beams Rieu, who thinks illness is “all in the mind”.
For his monstrous tour A Romantic Night in Vienna, featuring the largest-ever transportable stage set, Rieu remortgaged his castle and 1667 Stradivarius to re-create the atmosphere of a Viennese royal ball. He constructed not one but two lavish life-size models of the Schönbrunn Palace and filled them with musicians, singers, ballroom dancers, skaters, fountains, and a golden coach containing actors representing the Emperor Franz Joseph and Empress Sisi, drawn by six — yes! — white horses. He lost millions, because the first set was rejected by health-and-safety officials. He then had two more replicas made and shipped them out to Australia, where his popularity is such that he has had the ultimate accolade: a guest spot in Neighbours.
But the stage set proved too big to fit through the doors of a stadium in Perth. Rieu admits that the takings of his current tour merely go towards paying back the losses from his Vienna extravaganza. Then he unveils a plan whose cost would put even that in the shade. “One of my dreams is to go to the moon,” he says, “and give the first moon concert.”
Festive Concert with André Rieu is on Five on December 27; Forever Vienna is out on CD on December 28
8/26/01
Semperoper
Peggy at The Semper Opera in Dresden, GermanyDresden ~ August 22, 2008 by Peggy
Actually, I was not looking forward to travel to Dresden, but one has to set ones priorities. In any event, my Friday began relatively early, to be precise at four o'clock in the morning! I had packed my bags the day before and just had to get myself ready by 04:45 to go by taxi to the airport! At the airport, I checked in first, and then I started looking for Beate and Christa, because they were on the exact same flight as I. Eventually, I met up with them and we entertained ourselves until we boarded our plane. With a slight delay, our plane left shortly after half past six and just before half past seven we were already in Dresden. After we finally gathered our luggage, all three of us were on the way to our hotel and had a chance to see a little bit of Dresden. Our taxi driver was very nice and told us a lot about this historic city so that our first impressions could be formed.
For everyone who has not been to Dresden, I would highly recommend a visit to this historic city. It has changed a lot and it's inhabitants, "Ossis", are very helpful and incredibly nice. ~ PeggySince I was the first one to reach my hotel, I quickly checked my bag and what a surprise, in front of the hotel were the tour buses! Fortunately, a lift attendant who took my luggage, was in front of the hotel, and I asked him directly whether Mr. Rieu was also staying here. He told me that he was staying in another hotel, but I did not really want to believe him. In any event, we then drove to the next hotel, which is located next to the Frauenkirche (Church of Our Lady). After the other two checked into the hotel, we went straight for breakfast and sat directly across the Frauenkirche in a nice bistro. After our little meal, I met my sister a short time later, who is not a Rieu fan. Christa and Beate made their way to the Semper Opera and since my sister was hungry, the two us went to the closest Coffee shop. After breakfast, sightseeing was announced and so we visited the Frauenkirche, the Semper Opera, the Zwinger, etc., etc. In the afternoon we made our way back to the hotel to be with my family.
At 19:00 (7 PM) we made our way towards the Semper Opera and I was pretty excited, not only because of the concert! When I entered the opera, I was just thrilled. There was a champagne reception, which was provided by André . The first fans were also soon sighted, they entertained themselves, taking photos and eventually it was time for us to find our way to our seats.
It was quite unusual, because normally you sit on not-so-comfortable chairs in huge arenas but this time it was a little more intimate. Even if you had seats in the back rows or ranks, there was still a great view of the stage and fortunately I was sitting in the middle and had no large head in front of me!
With some delay, the show began and André had come on stage prior to the concert to explain how today's concert would evolve and also to say that during the concert, unfortunately, no pictures may be taken. I placed my camera immediately into my bag. After a short introduction, the red curtain of the opera opened and the first piece of music was played. It included "Gold and Silver", "Espana Cani", "Wishing you were somehow here again", a piece from the "Marriage of Figaro". Altogether, the whole concert theme turned into a "Wedding", but I can not divulge any more. My absolute highlight of the evening was "All I ask of you" from the musical "The Phantom of the Opera" which caused a lot of tears to run down my face.
To my great surprise, a very nice, good looking young man from the Maastricht Staar appeared on stage, and I was gone!!! This man is an absolute feast for the eyes.
After the Danube Waltz was played, the evening slowly came to an end, the Radetzkymarsch followed, and then the encores started, but were relatively shorter than expected. They played "Strauss & Co", followed by "I dance with you into Heaven". When the piece was finished there were at least three to four minutes of applause ... The public simply did not want André to go, and although the curtain had closed, André and his JSO came back once more and again played "I dance with you into Heaven". In between the audience was singing together with André, it was a great atmosphere! If I remember correctly one more piece was played after that, but then the evening was unfortunately definitely over, and I proceeded on my way back to the hotel.
I arrived at the hotel , went to my room, changed, and went to the lobby, because I just could not sleep, and was told that André Rieu & Co. would also be staying in the hotel. So then I went directly to the front of the elevator, so I could view everything at a glance and a few minutes later, the first members, like Frank & Sanne, entered. Gradually the others came in, and went to their rooms and eventually Marjorie and André entered. Marjorie went directly to her room, while André went into the bar to bring the evening pleasantly to an end. It was beautiful, to see all again so soon after the concert, and I had thought that I would not see André again, but it was all quite different! Finally, at 12:30 am I went to my room and eventually fell happily asleep!
The next morning, around 8 o'clock, my family and I went to the breakfast room where the friend of my Mom had gone ahead already and had selected a table. When I entered the room, I first saw the two bodyguards of André, which made me wonder. In any event, we went to our table, which is right next to the one with the bodyguards. I greeted the two and Johann returned the greeting. We sat down when my sister suddenly asked if I had noticed who was sitting opposite us. I could not believe my eyes because a table away sat André, Marjorie and a few friends of André. Somehow at first I did not dare to go to the buffet, but I was so hungry! So we gradually went to the buffet and I, in a funny sort of way, went more frequent than the others. Any way, André & Co sat comfortably at breakfast and now and then we glanced over to his table, and André did the same and every now and then looked over in my direction, then to my Mom and eventually he looked with large eyes at my sister when she returned from the buffet. She looked at him, but did not smile, but looked away shyly, hihi. It was quite interesting to see what André was eating, such as a fold-over sandwich, which a short time later he opened again and there also was sparkling wine or champagne or something like that. In between there were taps by Marjorie because André probably said something cheeky, lol! André spent at least one hour at breakfast and let nothing, or no one bother him. Finally, he stood up and said that he had to go change ... I too stood up at the same time, but I still wanted to get somehing from the buffet (I have never in my life eaten so much for breakfast !!!). While I stood at the buffet, I almost dislocated my neck because I was keeping an eye on the door. As I was putting cake on my plate, I looked simultaneously at the door and eventually André left. He must have seen me stare at the door while I picked up the cake and glanced in my direction, but made no gesture, hihi. If I had been pouring coffee at that moment, the cup would probably been over filled! After André had gone, I was totally HAPPY to have been sooo close to him, not the star, but to have experienced André Rieu as a person.
John Translated Peggy's Report From German to English for her.
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