Songs From the Labyrinth, the veteran rock star Sting's new Deutsche Grammophon recording of songs by John Dowland (with lutenist Edin Karamazov), has reached no. 1 on Billboard's US classical chart. The disc debuted on the UK classical chart at no. 1 last week but made no. 24 on the US chart.

Published: Monday, October 23, 2006

Andre Rieu lives in a castle. It's an old one, as castles are wont to be. Built in 1452 on a mountaintop in Rieu's hometown of Maastricht, the Netherlands, the castle is also big.

"I even don't know how many rooms there are," says Rieu by telephone from Atlantic City, N.J.

Rieu, of course, is the fellow known as the Waltz King of Europe, the populist violin-playing conductor who's often credited with sparking an international revival of waltz music, especially that of Johann Strauss Jr., by plunking his Johann Strauss Orchestra down to play in hockey arenas and other unlikely venues.

And right now he's squeezing in an interview before bustling off to Philadelphia for yet another grassroots concert on his current tour which, this coming Thursday, includes a stop at Rexall Place.

Music being his first love, it pops up even when Rieu's enthusing about his big house. "It's in fact like having an old violin, like a Stradivarius. I have a Stradivarius. I don't have the feeling, although I bought it, that it is mine. I'm the caretaker of this magnificent piece of art for the future." Neglected for centuries, the castle is being restored under Rieu's watchful eye, although he is steering clear of the tools himself, mindful that severed fingers could cramp his style on the violin.

Rieu began playing the instrument when he was five, later studying at such institutions as the Brussels Academy of Music where he won the Premier Prix.

Growing up in a large musical family, Rieu credits his late father, a respected conductor himself, with inspiring his love of Strauss and his decision to bring classical music, or at least its light, 19th-century incarnation, to the masses.

"He very often played as an encore Strauss waltzes," says Rieu, "and that was the moment that I was sitting in the audience as a little boy and being aware that it was classical music and everything was very severe and very stiff.

"And then suddenly during the encores, the public was moving and much more free than during the Beethoven symphonies. That struck my heart immediately and I thought, 'My God, this I like.' "

Elitism, he says, plagues classical music, with performers and fancy-dress audiences alike frequently believing that the music is their exclusive property.

"I want to give the classical music back to the people," says Rieu.

Strauss would have approved, he adds, pointing out that the composer himself frequently performed in Vienna's Stadtpark, a popular Sunday destination for everyday folks.

Rieu's game plan clearly works. While some may sniff at Rieu's plebeian touch, his concerts are engaging affairs, where audience members often clap and even dance in the aisles while the maestro mixes Strauss waltzes with polkas, folk numbers, and tunes from film soundtracks and musicals.

And who can argue with sales of 20 million CDs even if they do sport titles like Dreaming and Romantic Paradise, let alone his popular television specials, hot-selling DVDs of concert performances, and a string of music awards?

Rieu, as dashing in appearance at 56 as he is personable on the telephone, may have launched his career with a hugely popular recording of the Second Waltz from Shostakovich's 1959 Jazz Suites, but Strauss is still his main man.

"Strauss made this fantastic music where the whole world is happy to listen," says Rieu. "He made the fantastic combination between joy and melancholy. When you listen to the (Blue) Danube, it is a mirror of life. It is not only joy, and it is not only melancholy. That is the secret of his waltzes, I think."

Strauss also chews up most of the space on Rieu's iPod, although he mostly listens to it when he's touring as a kind of digital rehearsal.

Back at the castle, Rieu says, "My recreation is sleeping. That's true. When I'm awake, I'm running like four horses, my wife keeps telling that. Then suddenly the energy is finito, and then I sleep."