André Rieu and Camille Oostwegel.

About the castle lords of the South: André Rieu and Camille Oostwegel.

HP de Tijd Opinion magazine. 

December 2020. By: Willem Pekelder.

With a little bit of imagination, South Limburg's winters resemble a live Christmas card: snow on the hills, Christmas mangers along the roadways, bells ringing in the valleys. How is it this corona-Christmas in the South? Visiting André Rieu and the hotelkeepers Oostwegel. The crisis stimulates that "family feeling."

May I park my car at your castle? It is a matter of which a
reporter does not normally have to deal with every day, but in the instance with André Rieu, the question is entirely appropriate. The violinist and waltz king lives in a late medieval Chateau at the foot of the Sint Pietersberg (St. Peter’s Mountain) in Maastricht.

It is a national monument, called "Huis de Torentjes," of which the oldest piece dates from 1452. Rieu's PR. lady Marie von Baumbach, leads me through the orangery and the monastery garden with a Roman column gallery, to the kitchen, where cake and coffee await. She is German and early this morning flew especially from Munich to South Limburg for this interview.

In the kitchen, according to the story, French musketeer d'Artagnan, in service to King Louis XIV, had his last breakfast before he died in 1673 during the Siege of Maastricht. In the meantime André Rieu has now joined us, wearing a red checkered jacket with royal decoration and he smiles: “It's a story too good to go through again, so I won't do that”. Since March 2020, the orchestra leader has been forced to stay home, when due to corona measures he had to end his tour through America. He had only given one concert, in Tampa, Florida. “What happened after that? Well, I came home, hugged my wife Marjorie and my son Pierre, and started baking cakes. On his Smartphone Rieu shows photos of some successful creations. “Look, this is the Paris-Brest, made of puff-pastry dough with almond and praline filling in between. And this one right here: l'Opera, is filled with mocha and chocolate."

Rieu learned to bake cakes via the internet presented by the Amsterdam pastry chef Cees Holtkamp.

“When I was on tour and couldn't sleep at night, I watched those delicious cake movies. Now that knowledge is very useful to me. I bake for the entire neighborhood. Sometimes I hear on the street: “Hey André, it has been a while since we've seen one of your cakes. I now live from day to day, take a rest or do a sudoku in the orangery ”.

Yet it must gnaw on him that he cannot perform this Christmas due to the corona pandemic.

“Of course I would like to start again, but I am not sitting here crying, if that is perhaps what you are referring to. I generally only cry due to happiness. I am an optimistic person: one of these months there will be a vaccine.”

Financially Rieu is not worried. “We have had a few good years and therefore quite reserve. Last year alone we sold 750,000 tickets. For more than 100 of his permanent employees, he, just like all the other companies, receive 90% of the salaries paid by the government. He is now 71 years old. “But I feel like an adolescent. I still have a whole life ahead of me, I am at the most, halfway there. If I did not have that thought, I would have called 2020 a shitty year. Now I say, even if in the worst possible scenario I have to let everyone go, the day will come where we will rebuild everything. I will never stop making music. Never."

The time around Christmas will for the first time in decades pass without a full agenda. The planned concerts in the MECC in Maastricht have been canceled. Instead, Rieu has now released a Christmas CD/DVD: "Jolly Holiday." A huge artificial Christmas tree is already on display in his castle, with gifts underneath. “We will celebrate Christmas with the family. By the way, I've been doing that all my life. I once performed during the Midnight Mass, here in the Basilica of Saint Servaas. When I returned home I told Marjorie: "I'll never do that again. At Christmas I want to be with my loved ones, my wife, children and grandchildren.”

Rieu's musical career started in the church. As a child he sang during Mass in the St. Servaas choir and, together with his younger brother, studied scales with the famous Maastricht choir conductor Benoit Franssen. “Actually I was already a performer then,” Rieu recalls. "I did my very best to let the spectator enjoy himself. "As the son of the conductor of the Limburg Symphony Orchestra, he was born with a love for music. At the age of five, young André was already taking violin lessons. The Liège and Maastricht Conservatories followed later.

In 1987 André Rieu established his Johann Strauss Orchestra, which broke through in 1994 with Shostakovich's melancholic Second Waltz. The Maastricht born citizen has been allowed to call himself the most successful classical artist in the world for many years: sold about 46 million albums and 15 million concert tickets. During tours, Rieu's own chefs, his personal physician and fitness trainer all travel with him. 2018 was a peak year for André Rieu Productions, with a turnover of more than 54 million Euros and a profit of almost 12 million. You can say that Rieu has reinvented the waltz. Up until then, that genre was only performed during traditional concerts, with a polite applause at the end, but the South Limburger turned it into a colorful spectacle, with romantically dressed orchestra members and ballroom dancing couples. “I stripped the waltz of its old-fashioned image” thinks the violinist out loud, “and also especially from its negative connotations. That non-patronizing always hung around it. Leopold Mozart, the father of Wolfgang Amadeus, back then already said: "You should study and not play such a waltz. When I was still with the Limburg Symphony Orchestra, Strauss waltzes were invariably skipped. It was very annoying. Nothing is more difficult than playing a waltz”. He sings the first notes of the Blue Danube and then says: “Just play that with 100 people together. That is very complicated. The orchestra members watch every note coming out of my violin”.

“Du sollst dir kein Bildnis machen” (German for: You shall not make yourself an idol). That “saying” by writer Max Frisch is what Rieu wants on his tombstone, he already knows that. When you follow that advice, you will no longer stick to labels and you will have respect for music in all its manifestations.

All good music is good music. When it touches ME, I'll bring it to the stage because then it'll touch others too”. And so Rieu's concerts are a variation of classical waltzes, especially Strauss and Lehar, operetta music, soundtracks and pop. From "Ave Maria" to "Dancing Queen," from emotional tears to exuberant swinging, and all of that in minutes. I don't think you see that anywhere in the world. Only with me. The concerts are for everyone, just like music was once intended to be, according to Rieu. In Mozart's time, painters whistled his tunes. I don't know what happened, what gave classical music such an elitist image.” He puts on a pretentious voice: "Classic? You don't know anything about that, do you?" He makes the sign of the cross in the air and continues, “I am not the one who is calling to the world; I have come to bring you the gospel of classical music. Please  no! I am not a priest. Then I would totally have to forget “Mambo number 5” and “YMCA” completely!"

Rieu is surprised by my reaction to that “YMCA” could at one time agree with Pope Francis, now that the prelate recently spoke out in favor of gay partnership registration. "Is it real?" the violinist asks. “Well, then the Pope could either today or tomorrow get a drop of poison in his tea. No, I am no longer a member of the Church, although I still feel like and remain a Catholic. I like incense, rituals and all that, but I don’t like that institution. Why? 1. The Inquisition. 2. The oppression of women and 3. The oppression of gays. Marjorie and I were both raised quite strict Catholic. After our wedding we went to therapy for it and we left the Church ”.

We resume the conversation on the issue: is classical music elitist or not. “Do I sufficiently feel recognized? Well, by my audience for sure, yes! And for the rest? I know people in the Concert building Orchestra who appreciate me very much. Well, I think it is the same with me as with André van Duin. The moment the NRC Handelsblad (sophisticated newspaper) writes about you, you are over the hill. I don't even care that much. The real connoisseurs know that what I bring is good.”

Rieu is one of the few musicians in the world who can say that he has been scientifically studied as a musical phenomenon. Five years ago, the University of Maastricht published the research “Rieu, Maestro without borders”, (a book) in which the violinist was referred to as a sign of the times. Project leader Maaike Meijer then told the Flemish newspaper “De Standaard”: “We live in an individualistic era. This is precisely why there is a need for collectivity, such as a concert by Rieu with a lot of emotions on a square. We know that from the Middle Ages; the entire people are involved, it radiates togetherness. People let their tears flow and even fall into each other's arms. Everything is allowed and possible”. The researchers also discovered that at performances by Rieu and his Johann Strauss Orchestra one never zooms  in on the playing of hands. “No, I don't want that”, Rieu explains. “You are listening to a beautiful solo and what do you see? Hands. Or a bow. Ghastly! Its sole purpose is to show the virtuosity of the musician in question. But for me it's about something completely different: emotion. That's what I want to show, both the faces of the musicians as well as the audiences”.

A nice research, says Rieu, but the presentation was a different story. “Marjorie and I really were annoyed. Terms like “old-fashioned” and “Rieu’s orchestra even has a harp”… Even a harp, ha, ha! Since then, when we watch the Concertgebouw (Concert Building)Orchestra on TV, Marjorie and I invariably bump each other and chuckle: Look, even a harp! Well, this time I'm not going to let me be scientifically researched again, I know that for sure.”

Just like Strauss, André Rieu is a “Stehgeiger”(Stand-alone violinist): a violinist and orchestra leader at the same time, as well as audience entertainer. “Toon Hermans (another great Dutch comedian, who has since passed away) is my great role model in the field of humor. He knew how to managed and entertain the audience without hurting anyone, wonderful! Ultimately, such a concert really comes from here… ” and he gestures to his head. “Everyone watches me, and yes, I am the boss. Last year, during rehearsals for the summer concerts on the Vrijthof, I yelled: "Stop!" after two seconds. Then they know I'm serious. It was a mess with those 300 dancers. I am a perfectionist, and keep rehearsing until everything is in proper order. Nothing escapes me. If during a performance the second contra bass player happens to play one wrong note, I immediately turn my head and look at him. After that  it won't go wrong anymore. And at the same time I stay in touch with the public. My son Pierre, who along with my wife is also in the company, can sometimes during rehearsals go nuts because of me. “Can't you first say that it went well?” he then asks. Yes, I am strict, but never angry.”

 We're receiving a tour. “I bought this castle in three parts” explains Rieu. Where we are now, in the kitchen, that's part  one. Now we're going  to part two ”. A large dining room looms before our eyes: a table with 12 chairs, and a roaring fireplace. “This part was owned by the French jeans designer Pierre Morisset, and here," he continues, as we now arrived in part three, "lived Professor Struik. I asked Struik: "How much do you want for it?" "So and so much,"  he said. And so I bought it."  It is an en-suite drawing room with the pre-mentioned Christmas tree, paintings depicting the violinist and his wife, gold-leafed mirrors and Louis XIV-style chairs. “€ 75 each, from the V&D (department store) display window”, laughs Rieu, while caressing the chair. His precious Stradivarius we do not get to see. "In Vienna, for  maintenance" according to the lord of the castle.

Our view falls on the Monastery Garden, laid out by Rieu himself with tiles from Portugal. “The Roman columns are from Florence (Italy) and the roof tiles from the Dordogne (France). I like building so much!" exclaims Rieu enthusiastically. “I would really like to build a Roman villa.”

Although for years the castle and all of Rieu's belongings were seized, right down to his violin and trade name. That was after his bankruptcy in 2008, when the orchestra leader had Empress Sisi's Schönbrunn palace in Vienna copied for an international tour. That was too much of a thought, even for Rieu. The family business was left with a debt of 36 million Euros. “All those Bankers came here to the castle with a look of: "What more can we take with us?" But one of them said, you just keep performing because that's the only way we can get our money back. The Rabobank bosses agreed and I received their credit. Within 1 year I was back to 20 million in the black. Then the impoundments were lifted very slowly. I didn't think that was appropriate.  I've only been completely free from the Bank for two years now. Fortunately.  Money is my freedom, and freedom is the most important thing in life”.

Outside, the bells of the neighboring St. Peter church are ringing. A romantic sound, finds Rieu. “All young couples from Maastricht want to get married there”.

Time for a ride, he suggests. Rieu's stretched Mercedes Maybach is ready at the front of the castle, with which we take a tour through the Maastricht quarter where he was born, also called St. Peter's. Subsequently we drive to the Vrijthof. Rieu has not even left his car yet, when he is approached by a woman in a Kia: “Hello André, I see you often on TV. Wonderful! ” The King of the Waltz traveled all over the globe, but the Vrijthof is his home. “I'll never leave Maastricht, it is my city. Imagine: 11,000 spectators here on the square every evening. It is going to happen again next summer: concerts on the Vrijthof. We either make it or brake it." At a fish market booth he orders three herring sandwiches, one for PR. lady Marie Von Baumbach, one for himself and one for me, and says: “And with Christmas  2021 back to the MECC.”

The hour to say goodbye has arrived. “Oh, you are now going to Camille Oostwegel? He is a good friend of mine, ever since we were both at the Stedelijk Lyceum in Maastricht. We fell in love with the same girl, but she didn't give either one of us the time of day.”

Thanks to Ineke for this article. And a combined translations by Ineke and John