A date with the Prince of Romance...

My mom is a pianist, though not a gifted or a brilliant one. She could play the piano and she taught kids piano when she was much younger and it was from her I first heard and got to know Richard Clayderman. 

I grew up on his songs, some which my mom would try to play and some on the radio/ cassettes (well... those were the times....) and he was so handsome too, and so he was definitely one of my idols back then when I was just a kid/teenager.....

So when a chance came to catch him play LIVE in KL, I was thrilled and did not want to miss out on it...

The Prince Of Romance, French pianist Richard Clayderman  was at the Istana Budaya on the 31st March and 1st of April 2016 performing alongside our very own National Symphony Orchestra (NSO) String Ensemble concert as part of the pianist’s Asian leg of his world tour.

Yours truly here was blessed to be able to attend the opening night performance on the 31st March. 

To my surprise, among the pianist fans present was none other then our former Premier, Tun Dr Mahathir, his wife, Tun Dr Siti Hasmah Mohd Ali and former culture minister Sabbaruddin Chik.. which stirred up excitement in hall as everyone tried to get a picture of our former Prime Minister... Yeah... not only were the members of the media trying to get pictures but practically everyone in the hall tried to get a picture of Tun Dr Mahathir....

Tun Dr Mahathir was quoted saying that he wanted to find some peace in the midst of his busy daily routine and that he felt calmer after attending the Richard Clayderman concert....

Despite now being much considerably older then when I half fell in love with him during my teenage year, he still did not fail to impress the audience with his nimble fingers flying over the piano keys ...

Some of the hit songs he played included Murmures, A Comme Amour, Eleana, Ballade pour Adeline, Corazon de Niño, Coup De Coeur, Root Beer Rag, Schindler's List,  Spartacus, Romeo et Juliette, September and Dream a Little Dream.

The National Symphony Orchestra did an amazing job which even got an applause from the great pianist himself when they played the opening for Schindler's List.. I was truly impressed by them....

 Richard Clayderman has recorded over 1,300 melodies, and creating a new romantic style through a repertoire which combines his trademark originals with classics and pop standards, thus earning him his nickname, the Prince of Romance.

He was known to go as far as playing 200 shows in 250 days. 

His record sales in 2006 numbered at 150 million, and Richard Clayderman has 267 gold and 70 platinum albums to his credit. He is very popular in Asia and is noted by the Guinness Book of World Records as being "the most successful pianist in the world"

And watching his performance, despite now being 62 years old, I was truly awed all over again at how quick and nimble his fingers were flying over the piano keys especially when playing the Root Beer Rag

The one and a half hour breathtaking musical performance, with a 15 minute intermission was peppered  with the pianist’s funny antics, despite his confession of being unable to communicate too well in English....

One memorable part was when he announced he could not converse well in English and lapse into French much to most of the audience's confusion then ended with a "Terima Kasih" and another moment was he took out a paper from his pocket and read it then realized it was Japanese...

  

Some very lucky members of the audience were delighted and thrilled to go home with a copy of Richard Clayderman’s music sheets when the renowned pianist flung his music sheets to the audience a couple of times after performing the music during the show.

Richard Clayderman even gave one of his sheets to a little girl and his handkerchief as a keepsake to the little girl's younger sister....

Tickets to Clayderman’s concert at Istana Budaya were priced RM70, RM100, RM300, RM400, RM500, RM800, RM1000 and RM2500

For those who are too young to know who he is like my 11 year old youngest daughter who asked me who he was....here is a youtube video I found... on Ballade Pour Adeline, which I practically grew up on... and this reminds me to get another of his CDs to add to my collection... huhuhu