André Rieu Interview ~ Get The Whole World Waltzing

An Interview With André Rieu

By Chrissy Iley Mar 30, 2011: The wild-haired, modern-day Strauss on his plan to get the whole world waltzing ~ at any cost.

The show is quite a spectacle. He plays his violin and conducts an orchestra that contains ladies in full crinolines. There are always thousands of flowers and hundreds of balloons. He has also toured with horses, ice rinks and an entire castle which was rebuilt for each performance. But more of that later.

He’s Dutch, 61, with long, flowing rock-star hair and no visible signs of a comb over or transplant. His eyes are beyond piercing. They can look at you from the stage and find you in an audience. And he can make you waltz. Rows of ordinary people who go to his shows with no intention of dancing invariably find themselves swaying and mesmerised, pied piper style, into waltzing. Rieu also plays tunes like The Blue Danube, Edelweiss and I Could Have Danced All Night; anything, he says, that “touches the heart.”The second I enter André Rieu’s Hollywood hotel suite a camera is pointed at me. It belongs to a television crew which follows him at all times. Rieu, it seems, is always on, always the showman.

Click on the link to read full article: ►http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/classicalmusic/8403549/Andre-Rieu-interview.html