André Rieu Devastated over Cancelled Concerts

ANDRÉ RIEU DEVASTATED

AMSTERDAM - André Rieu carries a heavy burden. The emotional musician still has not recovered from the viral infection which has affected his equilibrium. "My doctors and I are working hard to restore that. They are doing all kinds of research to see if they can accelerate the recovery."
André continues ... "It's really not wise to force myself now. We are again preplanning the tours. I'll be back." In the meantime he has canceled two tours to Australia and Britain.

Son Pierre Rieu: "First thing this morning I went to our financial controller. All fixed costs will continue to be paid. We employ 120 personnel. The plane tickets have been purchased, the hotels have to be paid. It just can not be any other way."

Pierre is pulling his hair out: "Today we all sat down together with the orchestra. This has never happened before. Dad has never been sick. We do not have a handbook in our cabinet where we can see what we should do in cases like this. And you can not tell André that he should go back to work. His health takes priority over everything else. He still suffers from unexpected vertigo attacks."

His son also says that André really would love to go to work and at times really has made an effort. "We already have made some recordings for albums and rehearsed a little. But the fact remains that André's health remains questionable. Last week when he was in a poultry shop, suddenly he had to grab onto a rack or he would have fallen down. Something like that can not happen while you are on a large stage and especially with the pressure of an audience being there. The first performance would have been tomorrow in the massive O2 stadium in London. Dad phoned and said, "I really can not do it. This is so tragic."

In the meantime, Pierre is now busy working this disaster. In Britain and Ireland six shows have been canceled, and for the tours in Australia and New Zealand twelve performances need to be rescheduled. Earlier a performance in Heerenveen and two in the Amsterdam ArenA in the Netherlands had to be canceled.

Pierre says: "We are insured for the costs of construction and things of that nature. But I do not know for example how that works with airline tickets and hotels. In the Netherlands people know us and we were able to make arrangements. For next year we are going to book the same number of rooms and will then receive a big discount for the now unused nights. I think we will pay approximately 140 percent. But for England, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand, I am afraid that we have to pay everything. The same goes for the airline tickets."

André's Orchestra Maintains High Hopes

Pierre says, "Everyone here is in permanent employment. We can bear the costs. But of course no one is being jubilant. Our people are also restless. We all are suffering along with André."

If he feels better, the violin virtuoso will resume his work in November in Antwerp.

Article written by Wilma Nanninga and Translated by John