MICHAEL WALSH MUSIC CORRESPONDENT. When a member of the pretentious Talk Classical forum dared to ask what others thought of the light classical impresario Andre Rieu there was an outraged response. It took a brave soul to say a kind word about the man who, in 2009, was the world’s highest-paid musician. The thumbs up however come from a worldwide audience who love to sway in the aisles to the light waltzes of Johan I and II, Eduard and Josef Strauss, Franz Lehar, Jacque Offenbach; the Radetzky March and opera potpourri.

Born in Holland in 1949, André Léon Marie Nicolas Rieu enjoys a worldwide reputation as a composer, conductor, violinist, and of course impresario. His biggest audience so far was in Melbourne where he and his Johann Strauss Orchestra played to 38,000 light classical enthusiasts.  

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As an occasion, it was way behind that of the original Johann Strauss I who travelled to the U.S. in 1872. There in Boston, in front of an audience of one hundred thousand, his orchestra numbered 2,000 musicians. These included 350 violins and a choir of 20,000 singers. To help them keep to the beat, Strauss armed himself with a long, illuminated baton and one hundred assistant conductors.

The Andre Rieu orchestra first saw life as recently as 1987 with just 12 musicians. Today its presentations in style and substance rival an American presidential convention. Thousands fill squares and arenas where they link arms, community sing; dance and sway to a miscellany of light classics and theatre-land favorites. Although Rieu is said to be the world’s highest-paid entertainer few believe his ambitions are driven by anything other than bringing light classical music back to where it has always truthfully belonged; the people.

‘My father was a conductor,’ he says: ‘I grew up listening to his concerts. I noticed that, when he played waltzes as encores, the audience reacted differently. They smiled, and they started to move in their seats. This form of music still had the power to move people. That made a big impression on me.’

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It seems to be a failing of recording companies (and publishers) to miss out on the glaringly obvious. This popular King of Waltz recounts the dogged determination needed to get the backing of one of the biggest recording studios: ‘For years I offered a waltz recording to Phillips, and every year they turned me down. Finally, in 1995, they agreed, and that was the turning point. Our first recording beat Michael Jackson’s album in Europe.’

Rieu’s album is his double CD-DVD Vienna Forever compilation. It owes much of its success perhaps to the recent revival in ballroom dancing. Vienna Forever entered the UK Album Charts early in January; quickly hit the No.2 spot and obstinately remained up there much to the bemusement of pop culture. Within a week of its release in Eire, it soared from 49^th to 4^th place in the Irish Album Charts. WE WELCOME READERS’ COMMENTS ON OUR STORIES