Customer Reviews

Greatest Hits

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This CD is quite beautiful. It is classical, primarily strings with other instrumentation woven in. There are 15 tracks of extremely peaceful and relaxing music. In its beauty, it could also be considered romantic and there is some opera singing in places. You will most certainly recognize "My Heart Will Go On" from the movie "The Titanic" and "The Blue Danube Waltz". There is also some German singing (Andre is from Germany.) You will likely recognize some other tunes too.

A booklet is included, but the booklet is primarily advertisement (other CDs/DVDs and upcoming appearances). He also lists where the songs on this CD are from (what other DVDs).

This CD is great to listen to, to play as background entertainment for a dinner guest, or even to meditate to (if you are pretty good at meditating).

On a side note, I just saw Andre and his 50-piece orchestra in concert and they were wonderful! People even waltzed in the aisle. The concert went about 2 1/4 hours. He was extremely personable and comical in person. Although I have not seen any of his DVDs, I would assume that they capture some of the lightheartedness I saw in person, such as the person in bull costume chasing a lady dressed in all red or the beer garden celebration. If you get a chance to see him and his orchestra in person, DO IT!

I was totally pleased with the service and quality of the DVD.

I would use this seller again if I saw an item I wanted.

This is a CD that features many of his best hits. We have enjoyed the music very much as we do with all of Mr. Rieu's music. It is upbeat, happy music. Greatest Hits

If you are an Andre Rieu this is a perfect CD. If you are a good music fan this is a perfect CD for you...buy it!

Why did I purchase this cd? I enjoy his programs, his expertise in playing, conducting & arranging, and his great charm introducing his programs. Owning a cd with popular pieces would be lovely and enjoyable! What did I find I got? A selection that could have been played by any unknown orchestra. Not a word by him, no trace of his charm... just a string of pieces. Too bad -

I purchased this CD for my in-laws and they love it! It is on all of the time! Even though it has some stuff from other CD's, they are happy with it as they said it is most of his best music all on one CD. Made for a great gift for some big Andre fans!

I have always loved Andre Rieu, I have 16 CD's including the Andre Rieu Greatest Hits to my collection.

Mr Rieu is quite a nice fellow with a pleasant, if at times slightly insipid, sense of humour and a keen business acumen. He got bored as the leader of a provincial Dutch symphony orchestra (no great wonder, what with their programming of the perennial favourites over and over again and pedestrian standard of musicianship, Rieu included; they have in the mean time mended their ways though), started a small string band which led an only marginally successful existence and every once in a while toured with a pick-up band recreating the music of the Strauss family and like composers. Since his chance hit "The Second Waltz", a watered down version of a Shostakovitch composition, he has seen the light and has since that time carefully edited, truncated and simplified the lighter classics and "classified" all kinds of overly familiar music. He dressed-up the lady musicians as fairy princesses, made his male musicians smirk, and have them all gaily wave their instruments and display publicly what a good time they all seem to be having (all carefully rehearsed, as are Rieu's carefully edited jokes; very little happens spontaneously). This eclectic mixture seems to hold an enormous appeal for millions of CD and DVD buyers and concert goers. No problem there. I do however have a problem with the fact that many "fans" seem to think that what Rieu presents is classical music, the real stuff. Actually, no, it's not. They also seem to think that Rieu is the world's greatest violinist; well, he plays a Stradivarius, so he should be, shouldn't he?. Well, no, he's not. Why do these "fans", without knowing Mozart from Wagner and a symphony from a concerto, so vociferously state that Rieu is the greatest, without ever having taken the trouble to listen to classical music (other than perhaps a Strauss waltz or a Puccini aria by Paul Potts or that Scottish hag whose name escapes me right now), and that all who say otherwise are snobs, elitist, intellectual, arrogant and grumpy old men, who sit in cheerless concert halls listening to penguins playing music that no one understands? It's that ill-informed, lazy, overawed and reveling-in-an-underdog-position what irks me about the hype around Mr Rieu (for which he himself can hardly be blamed) and is reason for me to counterbalance the silly raving reviews ("me mum likes it, so it must be good") with one star.