the very acme of commodified classical music?

[lennygoran]

I often notice PBS does performances of his but have never taken the time to listen to any. I'm sure there are loads of clips on youtube. So is he what one critic wrote-see the title of my thread? Regards, Len

A Maestro for the Masses, if Not the Critics

By NINA SIEGAL DEC. 21, 2016


MAASTRICHT, THE NETHERLANDS — The Dutch violinist André Rieu, known by many as the “King of the Waltz,” is constructing what looks like the garden of a monk’s cloister, with marble arches and sandstone arcades, next to his 17th-century castle here. The only things missing are the monks.

What else to do with the millions this classical musician for the masses earns every year with his hit worldwide concert touring act and his best-selling albums and concert films?

The superstar violinist, 67, has sold 40 million CDs worldwide, and his tours, featuring popular favorites like “The Blue Danube” waltz and the theme from “The Godfather,” have outsold Janet Jackson, Fleetwood Mac and Beyoncé, according to Billboard. His orchestral tour in Europe and Latin America from June to October 2015 had $19.1 million in ticket sales.

His son Pierre Rieu recently gave a tour of the family’s home and gardens while Mr. Rieu was away on an Australian concert tour. He said the cloister, part of a complex that includes father and son homes and three guesthouses, was inspired by the family’s yearly trips to Rome. “André was always very impressed by these structures,” he said, “and he decided to build one of his own.”
Continue reading the main story

André Rieu performs about 100 concerts a year with his 55-piece Johann Strauss Orchestra, often in stadiums filled with tens of thousands of swooning (and sometimes waltzing) fans, who are typically gray-haired and mostly women.

His new album, “Falling in Love,” released on Nov. 25, has reached No. 7 on the British CD charts and has bolstered sales for his holiday tour there. He also had two popular concert movies this year, with more than 2.5 million pounds, about 3 million euros, in ticket sales with “André Rieu’s 2016 Maastricht Concert” in July and “André Rieu: Christmas with André” in November, according to CinemaLive, the films’ distributor. “Christmas with André” played in 480 theaters in Britain and Ireland on Nov. 19, and 290 theaters on Nov. 27, CinemaLive said.

Although his greatest concentration of fans seems to be in Britain, Australia, Brazil and Germany, Mr. Rieu is slowly finding an American audience; he performed his hit rendition of “My Heart Will Go On,” from the movie “Titanic,” on the American television show “Dancing With the Stars” in October. Pierre Rieu, who is the executive vice president of his father’s company, said Mr. Rieu has many fans in the United States, but has not caught on yet.


Mr. Rieu has long been a celebrity here, with annual concerts for about 11,500 audience members in the historic square at the center of Maastricht each year for the last 13 years. The eight annual concerts, which take place across three weekends in July, bring more than 60,000 visitors to the city, Pierre Rieu said. Six of the eight concerts for summer 2017 were already sold out in November.

With a sense of style that rivals Liberace’s, Mr. Rieu brings a heavy dose of spectacle to his performances, with his female musicians dressed up in cakelike pastel crinolines, stage sets that include life-size ballrooms and ice rinks, thousands of balloons, and lighting effects that bring to mind magical sunsets.

While critics have called his act schmaltzy, Mr. Rieu wrote in an email interview that he was not bothered. “I rather see it as a compliment,” he said. “I’m trying to create a ‘Gesamtkunstwerk’ where music, décor and costumes all add up to a magical evening.”

If the kitschy elements sometimes make classical music critics take him less than seriously, the press has not been totally stingy with praise. One critic at The Guardian newspaper wrote in December 2015 that he was “an extremely fine violinist with a seductively plush tone and a stage persona that turns out to be surprisingly relaxed and informal.”

That view was at odds with the assessment of another Guardian reviewer, who wrote in July 2015 that Mr. Rieu’s performance in one film was “the very acme of commodified classical music, and as poor old Strauss waltzes and polkas and other unsuspecting masterpieces were turned into saccharine fodder.”

Mr. Rieu’s taste for spectacle has gotten him into financial troubles. For his World Stadium Tour in 2008, Mr. Rieu wanted a full-size replica of Schönbrunn Palace, in Vienna, but because it was so large and complicated to construct, he had to build two to fit into his touring schedule, which included his largest concert ever, to an audience of 38,000 in Melbourne, Australia.

Mr. Rieu described the experience as: “Amazing. I have no words.” It left him about €34 million, about $36 million, in debt, though, and he had to declare bankruptcy.

“But it was such good advertising that all concerts were sold out the next year, and the next year I had €20 million plus,” he said, cheerfully. “But I promised my wife never to do it again.”


Quote 500, an annual list of the wealthiest Dutch people, estimated that he is now worth about €25 million.

Mr. Rieu seems to have an outsize appreciation for all kinds of dazzling things. Behind his house, he has built a butterfly sanctuary, which is really a lush greenhouse only for tropical birds and pools of koi fish most of the year. However, once a year, he orders 100 rare species of butterflies just before they emerge from their chrysalides, and enjoys them for a month before they die. The greenhouse is Mr. Rieu’s personal sanctuary, Pierre Rieu said.

Mr. Rieu, who sports long curly locks and favors high-necked blazers and tunics with flowing sleeves, grew up in a musical family, one of six siblings, who all played several instruments. His father, André Rieu Sr., was a conductor in East Germany and at the Limburg Symphony Orchestra in the Netherlands, and Mr. Rieu remembers him as “very strict” and “a conductor at home, too!”

“But I remember one concert during which he put his musicians in Mozart costumes and let them play, and the people loved it,” he said. “So I may have inherited that from him.”

As a child, Mr. Rieu studied violin, piano, flute and oboe, but he said he had paid special attention to his violin lessons. “My violin teacher was an 18-year-old blonde, and I immediately fell in love with her,” he said. “So I practiced a lot.”

The piano teacher, on the other hand, “was an old witch, I hated her,” Mr. Rieu said. But he did admire the castle she lived in, he said, and he bought it as soon as he had enough money. “I bought it because as a child I loved the comics from Tintin, and the professor in it owns a castle. So one day my wife and I were taking a walk past it, and I said, ‘I’d love to buy it.’ She replied, ‘You’ve got to sell a lot more CDs for that.’ So I did, ha-ha!”

The turning point of his career came in 1994, when he performed at halftime of a game between Ajax Amsterdam and Bayern Munich at the Amsterdam football stadium, and the crowd sang along.

Since then, it has been all balloons and chandeliers, and a nonstop schedule of touring that keeps him away from home more than half the year. Still, he said he had no plans for retirement. “My plan for the future is to play on the moon,” he said. “I’ve already talked to Richard Branson about it, and when he opens a hotel, I want to be the first to play there.”


http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/21/arts/ ... ction&_r=0

[John F]

Channel 13 used to play and replay André Rieu videos during pledge week or pledge month as it seems, alternating with concerts by the three tenors. Now it's mainly Andrea Bocelli. They seem to be following Sir Thomas Beecham's famous put-down of the English, that Americans may not like classical music but they love the noise it makes." Likewise the many advertisers who use snippets of classical music in their TV commercials.

I heard some of the elder André Rieu's recordings and when this fop appeared on the TV screen, I wondered if it could possibly be the same man. No, the only thing they have in common is their name.

[lennygoran]

I heard some of the elder André Rieu's recordings and when this fop appeared on the TV screen, I wondered if it could possibly be the same man. No, the only thing they have in common is their name.

I looked up fop even though I had an idea of the meaning.

noun
noun: fop; plural noun: fops

a man who is concerned with his clothes and appearance in an affected and excessive way; a dandy.

Does this mean you don't think his violin playing is too good-is his violin playing okay but is performing it in sometimes spectacular surroundings the problem. I have no opinion for myself but may try some you tube clips later-I would be interested in how he does with classical music as opposed to how he handles the themes from Romeo and Julliete or the God Father. Regards, Len

PS-I read this at wiki:
"Of Rieu's popularity and the media debate surrounding him, Eamon Kelly wrote in The Australian newspaper: "It is disappointing to see professional journalists indulging in cheap, inaccurate stereotypes to dismiss criticism of Rieu."[13] But he goes on to add: "Equally misguided are those who cursorily dismiss Rieu. Rieu's live and recorded performances have brought joy to millions of people. Few in his audiences are regular classical music attendees and it could be seen as promising that, via Rieu, they are listening to standards of the classical canon. The fact that Rieu's focus is on highly accessible, enjoyable repertoire is not an argument against his musical credentials"

PPS-I didn't know Shostakovich did waltzes

[Ricordanza]

PPS-I didn't know Shostakovich did waltzes

This particular waltz was featured in the film "Eyes Wide Shut."

[lennygoran]

PPS-I didn't know Shostakovich did waltzes

This particular waltz was featured in the film "Eyes Wide Shut."

Henry thanks-didn't know about this film but wiki filled me in!

"The film spent a long time in production, and holds the Guinness World Record for the longest continuous film shoot period, at 400 days. Eyes Wide Shut was Kubrick's last film, as he died four days after showing his final cut to Warner Bros. Pictures." Regards, Len

[maestrob]

Remember there used to be Arthur Fiedler? Rieu is in the same category. Both are/were serious musicians who play accessible music for large audiences: I see nothing wrong with that.

The Shostakovich is a good piece. You should try the middle movement to his Second Piano Concerto. The orchestration is so simple that it's been reduced to a chamber version at times: very moving.

That said, while I have respect for both conductors, I'm not a fan, per se.

[lennygoran]

You should try the middle movement to his Second Piano Concerto.

Brian thanks, I know that work and love it-play it pretty frequently. Regards, Len

[John F]

I heard some of the elder André Rieu's recordings and when this fop appeared on the TV screen, I wondered if it could possibly be the same man. No, the only thing they have in common is their name.

I looked up fop even though I had an idea of the meaning.

noun
noun: fop; plural noun: fops

a man who is concerned with his clothes and appearance in an affected and excessive way; a dandy.

Does this mean you don't think his violin playing is too good-is his violin playing okay but is performing it in sometimes spectacular surroundings the problem.

You yourself have just quoted the definition of "fop," so you don't need to ask me what I mean - just look again.

[lennygoran]

a man who is concerned with his clothes and appearance in an affected and excessive way; a dandy.

You yourself have just quoted the definition of "fop," so you don't need to ask me what I mean - just look again.

Still can't a guy be concerned with his clothes and appearance in an affected and excessive way and still be a competent violinist and conductor? Regards, Len [retreating]

[barney]

Rieu says: “I’m trying to create a ‘Gesamtkunstwerk’ where music, décor and costumes all add up to a magical evening.”

Him and Wagner, eh? Bosom buddies with an identical vision!
I believe he was a second violinist in a Dutch orchestra before he invented his game plan, and it was Australia's arts channel that made him known. I don't say he's a bad violinist, though he's hardly a Heifetz or an Oistrakh, but what bothers me is that everything gets the same bland sound. Beethoven, the Beatles, Shostakovich (if he ever played any) all sound identical. I reviewed his Melbourne extravaganza a few years ago (2008) - he filled a football stadium.
An extract from that review:

It's a bit like a highly sophisticated version of the Wiggles: constant action, variety, humour — and all great fun. The audience came so disposed to enjoy themselves that many gave a standing ovation after the opening item (and regularly thereafter).

The secret is twofold: a breathtaking showbiz experience and Rieu's magnetic enthusiasm.

Rieu, this shaggy-haired, perpetually smiling former back-bench orchestral violinist, is simply a phenomenon. The man who beat Madonna to top the ARIA charts in May has 70 platinum discs for sales in Australia and has sold 1.8 million DVDs and CDs in this country, half in this year alone.

[lennygoran]

An extract from that review

Barney I enjoyed your review-at you tube I noticed he did a lot of performances with someone I never heard of but wiki took care of that:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mirusia_Louwerse

Regards, Len

[barney]

Len, I had no idea she was Australian. Thanks for that. I've never heard of her in any other context, eg opera - but there is a gulf between singing popular songs miked up and filling a theatre unamplified. I don't say she can't; I only say I've never come across her.

[lennygoran]

I only say I've never come across her.

Barney you may RIEU the day you do come across her! Regards, Len

[barney]

I only say I've never come across her.

Barney you may RIEU the day you do come across her! Regards, Len

Thank you Len. Why aren't you (fleeing)?

[lennygoran]

Thank you Len. Why aren't you (fleeing)?

Barney you're right-I'm outta here! Regards, Len

[barney]

Lenny, you've clearly been in training! You look really fit. I couldn't possibly catch you in flight.

[lennygoran]

Lenny, you've clearly been in training! You look really fit. I couldn't possibly catch you in flight.

Barney yeah, it's the gardening and running after the woodchucks! Regards, Len