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Richard Clayderman -- Magic in his fingers

He came, he played and he conquered. In just an hour. Pianist Richard Clayderman charmed the press and the select few audience in Mumbai while on his very short promo tour organised by Virgin Records and BPL Mobile. But then, that’s nothing new for this soft-spoken, self-effacing blue-eyed Frenchman who already has a huge dedicated fan-following the world over, which includes celebrities like Nancy Reagan, who was mesmerised by his performance at the Waldorf Astoria, in New York.

Clayderman has established himself as an international best-selling recording artist and concert performer, and is considered to be one of the most prolific and successful recording stars in the history of popular music. His albums have recorded massive worldwide sales in the league of 65 million. The pianist has to his credit 800 titles, and 63 Platinum and 263 Gold records worldwide.

Nancy Reagan bestowed on him the title ‘Prince Of Romance’ enthralled by the very romantic musical pieces played by the deft movement of his fingers on the piano. Popular renowned pianist Richard Clayderman was in Mumbai on June 23, only for some hours, but after an interactive musical session with a few select invitees, all couldn’t help but say “yeh dil maange more.” Well, Clayderman has promised he’ll be back, after a couple of months.

Playing the piano is a talent Clayderman inherited from his father, who was a piano teacher. Born in 1953 in Paris, as Philippe Pages, he grasped most of the intricate details of piano-playing by listening to his father as he taught piano to his students. Seeing his interest, Clayderman’s grandfather presented him an old piano at the age of six, and soon Clayderman could read music and play piano with graeter ease then he could speak French. In a couple of years, the young pianist was winning all local competitions. When he was 12, he was accepted at the Paris Conservatoire of Music, and at the age of 1,6 he won the first prize in a competition.

Just when everybody was sure that he would take up a career as a classical pianist, Clayderman decided he wanted to do omething “different.” Gathering a few friends he created a rock group, which didn’t work, and whatever little money they made was used to buy musical equipment. Things changed when Clayderman’s father became ill and he had to support his family financially. He took on the job of a bank clerk, and in the nights he became an accompanist to many leading French entertainers. After a year, Clayderman progressed to a session musician, accompanying musicians like Michel Sardou, Thierry LeLuron and Johnny Halliday. “I was happy to play with the groups, happy to be a session musician. I never dreamed of becoming a solo performer,” recalled the popular pianist.

It was in 1976 that a dramatic twist came into Clayderman’s life, after he was auditioned by Olivier Toussaint and Paul de Senneville, who look after the French recording company, Delphine. Both Toussaint and Senneville, who were successful producers in their own right, were looking for a musician to interpret a ballad, which Senneville had written for his daughter Adeline called Ballade pour Adeline. They were looking for something special and chose Clayderman from the 20 musicians.
It was Toussaint and Senneville who were responsible for changing the pianist from Philippe Pages to Richard Clayderman. Explained the pianist, “My producers were a little concerned about my real name as it is pronounced differently in every country. To save confusion we decided to use my great grandmother’s name, Clayderman, who resided in Sweden a century ago.”

Ballade pour Adeline became a success and Clayderman’s career was launched with a bang. Ballade... first clicked in Spain, followed by Germany, France, south America, Japan, Australia and UK, selling a whopping 22 million copies. Since then it has always been an upward graph for Clayderman, who is regularly touring cities, treating music lovers to his distinct style of music. He is said to be one of the most travelled entertainers, sometimes giving over 200 concerts in a year in response to the demand his music has created. His concerts in Australia, South America, Europe and Asia have always been sell-outs, and his first concert appearance in China in 1987 was telecast to an audience of over 800 million.

In recent years, the pianist has toured Japan, where he recorded the piece Prince of the Rising Sun to commemorate the Crown Prince’s marriage, Scandinavia, Greece, Sri Lanka, Germany, Malaysia, Dubai, Indonesia and Russia to name a few.

Virgin Records, which has got hold of the vast repertoire of the pianist, and will be releasing most of his albums here, got Clayderman to make his first visit to India. At a press meet to introduce the pianist, Mohan Mahapatra, MD, Virgin Records India, said, “Usually international artists are averse to coming to India either on promo tour or concerts, since they are busy and are not sure of the response here. But when we approached Richard (Clayderman) for a promo tour, he willingly agreed without even asking a question. We aren’t paying him a penny for this.”
Clayderman, who was accompanied by his manager, mentor and producer of Delphine Records Olivier Troussaint, looked amused at the attention and answered questions earnestly in his French-accented English. The pianist said that when it came to choosing popular songs for playing on the piano, he only went for the melodious ones which oozed romance, and which can be adapted on the piano easily. Calling India “the land of Taj Mahal, the land of romamce,” Clayderman said that he was keen to use Indian music in his future albums.

At the interactive musical sesssion that followed later, he played the versions of famous tunes which included the theme music of Westside Story and Titanic, and Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Don’t cry for me Argentina from the musical Evita, as well as his original compositions.

An interactive musical session, not a concert
While Clayderman’s performance for a select audience in Mumbai, on June 23, charmed music buffs, it also got some flak from a section of the press, saying that the pianist’s performance was cut short. Also he wasn’t allowed to respond to all the requests from the audience, and that his visit wasn’t publicised well, depriving many of his fans from hearing him. Shamin Tandon, in charge of marketing, Virgin Records, had this to say: “This wasn’t his concert tour, it was his just a promo tour to present a sampling of his music. We will be getting him back in three months’ time for a full-fledged concert. I don’t think anybody had any misconceptions that his one-hour performance on June 23, for the select audience, was a concert. We had stated clearly in our press publicity that it was an interactive musical session, where people would ask him questions and make requests for any composition. And I can assure you that those present at the session were more than happy.”

Salma Khatib