ANDRÉ RIEU in Chapeau Magazine

WORLD WIDE

Chapeau Magazine Feb/Mar 2012

In 2011, I would do things a bit easier, not the amount of concerts though, but everything else associated with them. It became a very busy year though. Tours to Mexico, Australia, New Zealand, the US, Canada and concerts throughout all of Europe, a special in Vienna, the exceptional meeting with Sir Anthony Hopkins, the premier of his Waltz, concerts at the Vrijthof, in the Amsterdam ArenA and the Gelredome, and during the summer the production of a Christmas special for the German ZDF Television which was aired on Christmas Eve. If I add it all up, then that "rest" is not so bad after all.  

This Christmas special was the third one we produced and the previous one was done quite some time ago. We knew this was not going to be an easy task, since the Christmas repertoire is not endless, but we still wanted to produce something special. Together with Marjorie we worked on an idea during the summer. The basic idea from ZDF was for me to show the people how I celebrate Christmas at home, of course with the Johann Strauss Orchestra and our amazing soloists.

Huge Interest in Brazil 

Then you realize that we actually have many opportunities in our own territories.To begin with, the castle and the garden, which we used as a fantastic background, and a few meters further, the St. Peter’s church, and a couple of hundred meters further on country Restaurant, Slavante, nicely situated against the mountain. The inner city of Maastricht made the picture complete. Well … yes … complete? There were of course still items which needed to be completed.

It needed to be a special of two hours duration, totally submerged in a Christmas atmosphere and of course the outside recording needed to be in a "real" winter landscape. Not an easy task when you are working in the warmest autumn in a century. But thanks to huge snow machines and all other attributes, we changed a small part of Maastricht into a small piece of Austria. It was puffing for the orchestra members who were playing in 25 (77F) degree weather, dressed in heavy sweaters. But in the end result you do not notice that at all.  

We started with this in July and by the end of August the screenplay was finished. But the recordings had to be done in between the US and Canadian tours, during September, October and November. Followed by the splicing in our own studio. A huge job, but we are proud of the end result. During the Christmas celebration in our studio for the orchestra and all other employees, we all watched this special on a large screen. That was for all an emotional event. Every one present had in one way or another contributed to this special, and that then is for everyone present something extra ordinary, such as a birth for instance. Fantastic!!

Discovering The Far East 

In January I am starting on the script for the English version, because this special will be released in the US next year. At the same time this special DVD will also be made available here. It was a gigantic task, we are all extremely proud of the results, and think that many people will enjoy it. The number of ZDF viewers on Christmas Eve told the truth. 

In the meantime, our traditional and always festive New Year’s concert in Cologne is behind us and we are right in the middle of our German Concert tour. That is always a celebration since we achieved our first successes there, and the public is still very faithful.

After Germany, France (in March) will be next and then we start preparing for our first ever concerts in Brazil. First to Sâo Paulo where the interest is enormous, and later we will definitely go to other cities. South America is becoming more and more interesting and now we also have requests from other Middle-American countries. On the opposite side of the world, the Far East is becoming more and more a reality. We have previously already been to Japan, and now we are starting preparations for places like China, Singapore, Manila and Taipei. In December we have a Christmas tour through England, where there already is a huge demand. We will perform twice in the O2-Arena in London. We will literally go around the world. Sometime I cannot believe that it is all reality. It still seems like a beautiful dream. Can I then also dream that 2012 will be a quiet year ... André Rieu

Thanks to John for his Translation of this article