Nice 'search' job!
(1st post on this thread in 6 years, which means most of us here never saw it.)

I remember when there used to be all those late-night TV ads for his recordings. They said he had sold more recordings in Europe than any other pianist, but most people here (U.S.) had never heard of him. So, a lot of people made fun of him, especially David Letterman, who did a whole series of Richard Clayderman jokes. But then eventually, they had Clayderman on the show, including playing some of his stuff and being a good sport about the whole thing.

Well, I don't put Clayderman on my shelf of classical pianists I admire, but I certainly do enjoy his music. His, Keiko Matsui, Yanni, Yiruma and other new age'y stuff that's plain pleasure to listen to - yet nothing ambitious.

I am pretty sure even after being able to play Rachmaninoff concerti (we can have our dreams, right? :D) I will return with smile to "Ballade pour adeline" (which is, by the way, de Sennevile's composition, Clayderman only played it) or "Comptine d'un autre ete..." by Yann Tiersen. Being simple doesn't make them stupid.

And yeah - I thought I've been on this forum for so long... and yet I haven't seen this thread! ;-)



M.

This thread -at three pages- seemed to have popped up from nowhere.

Two comments:

(1) It seems to be an established fact that Clayderman was a graduate of the Conservatoire de Paris. (What did he play? The Happy Farmer?)

(2) Would he ever have had any kind of career without those looks... which played out so perfectly for 30-something women during the '80's in US cities such as San Francisco, Seattle, Chicago, Boston where the men in their offices were either married or gay?

Tell me I'm missing something. During the same time frame Joshua Bell was an awesome sight to behold, but those looks were backed up by an incredible talent. I've seen Mr. Bell live a number of times -I know where he lives in London, hehe- and he delivers the goods. Maybe when his looks are no longer a big selling point he might tackle the Elgar concerto. Elgar did not write his concerto for youngsters, though many have tried, and I don't fully understand the piece.

I can't run away from the comparison, that may be unfair to one of them, but strikes my head like a hammer. The comparison that Clayderman is somehow the Vanessa Mae of piano.

She perhaps can play classical as well, but she virtually never does. Playing what sells best in her genre she doesn't unveil even a 5% of her technique (which she may no longer have, for instance, after neglecting it).

He found a niche... and musicians like him are needed in this world as well.

Speaking of Joshua Bell - he delivers the goods of the sorts that looks is not that important. The target audience of Clayderman wouldn't call what Bell delivers "goods", no matter how he looked. On the other hand, the target audience of Bell wouldn't care for Clayderman looks at all, considering what he plays.


M.

Looks matter.
A lot.
And IMO if we think there's something wrong with that, we are losing sight of human nature and what drives us.

A few years ago, I was at a master class where everyone played well. This one guy was probably the least good, but he was beautiful -- young guy, maybe 20, better looking than Clayderman and better looking than just about anybody. As far as we pianists were concerned, he was of only marginal interest, but I realized that if (let's say) the media had been present, 95% of the coverage would have been about him. The headline might have been "Beautiful Guy, 5 Others Perform at Master Class."

Indeed Mark. Thanks for your post. Why was it a few years ago that I never missed a Panic! At The Disco concert?

He's got a niche in the "easy listening" market for piano. There are thousands of classical concert pianists, and somehow, he stayed away from that genre and decided to corner this niche market and sell thousands of CDs (I'd bet the majority of his customers are non-pianists), and in the process has made millions.

I think he's done pretty well for himself.

I remember my mother being all excited in the 80's when I learnt to play 'Lady Di'. However, it is sort of like Muzak

i ordered his blue book a while back. at the time it was interesting. i have a pile of books i give away.

Richard Clayderman published a smash hit in 1977 ... Ballade for Adeline ... which every teenager with piano ambitions liked to play in public.

Here’s the cover page together with the two page Ballade for Adeline by Paul de Senneville and Olivier Toussaint ... even I was dragooned into playing this ditty at the time.

It's gotta be the eyes... yeah that's where the money was. The fantasy of thousands of single (or maybe not?) women.

Thanks for that fan,
I've just tacked on the two page score to Ballade for Adeline.

Yes, my mum was reeeally impressed when I learnt Ballade for Adeline in 1990 on a Casio, 5 octave, non-velocity sensitive keyboard with mini keys. Stuff seemed so much more expensive back then! If that's contributing to my playing ability today then I have Richard to thank for. I think I have an old recording on cassette somewhere..

And thanks for that, btb.

The Ballade is a prime candidate for if you can't sightread it you're playing it too fast.

Well he never appealed to me, let me tell you. And btb, thanks for posting the music to Adeline. Now I know what that horribly annoying tune which has seeped into my brain from time to time over the last 30 years actually is. On second thoughts, I don't thank you.

or your vision is not good enough to be a good sightreader anyway, which seems to be the case with me


M.