LEGENDS
ANDRE RIEU: THE WORLD'S GREATEST MUSICAL SHOW BELONGS TO HIM!
By Maximillien de Lafayette. Contributors & Additional data: Andre Rieu Fans web. Le Violon Magique (Ms Martine), Maestro Rieu's official biography and official site.
Maestro Andre Rieu is
unquestionably the world's greatest living musical legend. This man is
immortal! Today, in the entire world, Maestro Rieu is the only violinist,
musician, composer, director, conductor, star, stage set designer,
entrepreneur and musical genius who through his music, can simultaneously
captivate an 89 year old man or woman and a 6 year old child and make them
stand on their toes, dance in sync, go crazy, explode, sing along and have
the best time of their lives. Although, he was classically trained and was
brought up in a traditional/classical music family and milieu, Grand
Maestro Rieu knew that "conservative" and traditional classical musical
concerts will not stimulate and captivate everybody. Thus, he invented the
most delightful, innovative and successful musical and entertainment
formula to please and tease, to capture and mesmerize the world's largest
musical audience and people from all walks of life, all nationalities,
all ages and ethnic backgrounds. He brought animated musical life to
classical music. He created a tempo which preserved the dignity and
majesty of classical music and in the same time, it revived the austerity
of classicism with rhythmic virtuosity, multidimensional flairs and caches
of world music encompassing waltz, ballads, arias, folk, contempo,
quasi-march, dance and entertainment music. His show is a rainbow of one
million musical colors of all styles, genres and feelings blended together
with grace, style, class, beauty, warmth, vitality, rhythm, rich brass
section, magnificent arrangements for violins, nostalgic and celestial
orchestration for piccolo, flutes, harps, cellos, marimbas and even
cimbaloms! This most creative innovative musical virtuosity appeals to an
extremely large audience around the world. In addition, his mesmerizing
and warm stage presence, his unusual and delightful sense of humour, the
captivating stage set, the lighting design, the dresses, costumes and
outfits of his musicians, his acrobatic high jumps and foot work on stage,
his direct contact and rapport with the public, his sinfully appealing
smile, brief pauses between notes, moderato-allegro-Napolitano-Milanese-Cambrese-Vienese-quasi
Kosak-motion pictures grand musical scores, selection of tunes and songs
transformed his concerts and shows into the world's richest, most varied,
liveliest and most unusual musical and entertainment show of all time. In
my book, Andre Rieu is the best of the best in the business. La crème de
la crème. In other words, Grand Maestro Rieu is a living legend!
BUT WHO IS ANDRE RIEU?
His official biography tells us that Andre Rieu was born in Maastricht, Netherlands, in 1949. Had his first violin lesson at the age of 5. Studied at the Maastricht Academy of Music from 1968 to 1973 and the Brussels Academy of Music from 1974 to 1977. Won the Premier Prix at the latter in 1977. Joined the Limburg Symphony Orchestra as a violinist in 1978, staying until 1989. Formed the Johann Strauss Orchestra in 1987. Set up his own company, "Andre Rieu Productions". Won the World Music Award in 1996. First toured Japan in 2001.Andre Rieu, born into a large musical family. He grew up surrounded exclusively by classical music, especially symphonies, chamber music and opera. Encouraged by his father, a professional conductor, Andre started taking violin lessons at the age of five, the beginning of a love affair that would never end. As as student at the conservatoire he was asked to take part in a salon ensemble and as he played his first waltz a whole new world opened up for him. Something overwhelming happened in the audience, people could simply not sit still; their feet tapped along to the rhythm of the waltz, bodies swayed back and forth, they softly hummed along with the melody. From that time on Andre was hooked on the waltzes' rhythm and began to dream of a large orchestra that would enchant its audience. After recruiting his own "Johann Strauss Orchestra" Andre first starts touring through the Benelux countries. With the release of "From Holland with Love" something happens in the Netherlands that no one would have thought possible: the "Second Waltz," by Shostakovich, triggers a waltz wave in the tiny country, and from there all over Europe and still further all over the world. From then on Andre Rieu has been crowned the "King of Waltz." Although the waltzes rhythm will continue to be the rhythm of his life, according to Andre your heart beats in three-four time, he and his orchestra play a lot more than waltzes these days. Andre's wish to make the whole of classical music accessible for everyone has undoubtedly come true. All over the world millions of people of all ages enjoy going to his concerts or listening to his music. His CDs offer us an excellent mixture of all sort of famous movie musical tracks, evergreens and well-known classical melodies- each and everyone of them a gem. His concerts music appealing to all kind of people, young or old, European, American or Asian.
"I spent my childhood in an environment of great familiarity with classical music. My father was a classical music conductor, so I used to go to his concerts every week with my brothers and sisters when I was a child. We were so proud of him. But classical concerts in those days were very serious affairs. Everything was black, there were no flowers and no lighting effects. I couldn't understand that. If music was so beautiful, why was there no laughter? To me, life seemed very grave and a lot of people seemed to live their lives too seriously. And I felt the same about classical music. By nature, I'm a fairly cheerful person, and I prefer to have a lot of humor in my life. That's why I want to make my concerts cheerful and full of humor. I want the orchestra members and the audience, as well as myself, to enjoy the music from the heart. The atmosphere of reserved aloofness that puts a lot of people off classical music is completely absent from our concerts." Growing up in a large musical family -my father was a conductor and nearly all of my brothers and sisters are instrumentalists - I heard almost nothing other than classical music: symphonies and other works for large orchestra, chamber music and opera. Continues next
