European Dopers: tell me about Andre Rieu

I’m a big Strauss fan, and years ago picked up a CD by Andre Rieu, knowing nothing about him. His performances pretty much sucked, IMO, and I tossed the CD.

Recently, there was a television special featuring AR. Remembering my crappy CD, I watched out of curiosity. What the hell? He had an overdressed all-girl band and performed very schmaltzy versions of Strauss pieces, all the while simpering at the audience over his violin like an idiot. The audience (he was performing in Italy) screamed for him like he was the reincarnation of Strauss himself. What’s the deal with him?

Well, you’ve pretty much summed it up accurately. If, like me, you love that type of music, you won’t be able to stand André Rieu. He perpetuates the myth that waltzes, etc. are schmaltzy, which of course they don’t have to be.

But there certainly is an audience for that crap, though I don’t think it’s exclusively “European.”

Sweet Jesus, the man makes Liberace seem like a serious musician.
[hijack]Wife sez that if I don’t think of Liberace as a serious musician I haven’t heard him play Chopin. Sez he had a true understanding of it and was the greatest Chopin interpreter since Chopin himself.[/hijack]

I’d comment on this guy, who sadly is from my own part of The Netherlands, but this isn’t the Pit.

Enough said.

To me he’s the pinnacle of the worst of German Schlager music - the exaggerated pompousness that is yet so vulgar, the paint-on tan and lipstick, you know the dril - except he’s playing waltzes on his violin rather than singing corny schlager songs that a certain David Hasselhoff could be considered an English version of (hence the success of his album in Germany). Unfortunately, Mr Rieu is not German, but Dutch, like me. But hey, he makes buckets of money so who am I to blame him? Hopefully he’s not a tax refugee yet. :smiley:

He lives and works from in my hometown, Maastricht. He’s sort of our most succesfull export product.

http://www.andrerieu.nl/