“Prince of Romance”
Pianist Richard Clayderman turns 70
The French pianist Richard Clayderman turns 70. Photo
© Andreas Lander/ZB/dpa
Richard Clayderman is one of the most famous pianists in the world. While his career is a series of superlatives, his personal life hasn’t always been rosy.
Richard Clayderman is one of the most successful pianists in the world. He has collected records professionally: over 2,800 concerts on five continents, around 340 gold and platinum records and more than 90 million records sold, including between 22 and 23 million for his “Ballade pour Adeline”. Astronomical figures, to which, according to the company’s own information, are added his three million kilometers of flight. A career that couldn’t be more successful. In his private life, however, luck was not always in his favor.
The French pianist, who turns 70 on December 28th, calls his privacy a “secret garden” and himself a reserved person. He gave one of the reasons in an interview with the French television magazine “Télé Star”: “I never have my two want to give up children.”
Private tragedies
The subject of children is a dark chapter in the pianist’s life. In 2012, he lost his then 39-year-old daughter Maud, who was born when he was only 18. She died of heart failure at her desk. Only years later did he speak about it in the media.
He found out the terrible news over the phone from his ex-wife Rosaline because he was on tour in Germany. The drama plunged him into a deep depression. His love of music helped him to get over it, he said on the Canadian program “Le café show”.
The complete work of the musician, who was born in Paris as Philippe Robert Louis Pagès, now consists of around 1,400 titles. As the son of a French pianist and piano teacher, he learned to play the piano at the age of six. At the age of twelve he was admitted to the Paris Conservatory. At the age of 16 he won first prize.
Today he is married to the violinist Typhaine Pautrel. The wedding to the musician, who is 15 years younger, took place in 2010. He met her on tour in 2001. The announcement of his separation from his second wife Christine, from whose marriage his son Peter, born in 1984, comes, also took place quietly.
He likes jazz pianists like Herbie Hancock
Gentle, soulful, cozy: a style to which Clayderman has been loyal for 40 years and which earned him the nickname “Prince of Romanticism”, which the ex-president’s wife Nancy Reagan gave him in the mid-80s. His latest album “Forever Love” from 2022 is also a typical Clayderman work. In addition to interpretations of modern classics by Coldplay and Ed Sheeran, he plays compositions by Paul de Senneville, who wrote the Candlelight song “Ballade pour Adeline” for him in 1977.
In his private life, however, he has a preference for jazz musicians. He likes pianists like Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea, Joe Sample, Michel Petrucciani and Brian Culbertson. “I like jazz a lot, but I’m not capable of producing a jazz album,” he told dpa. Romanticism is in his blood.
With his latest album he has made a big splash in France, as he fills concert halls especially abroad. According to him, it has fallen out of fashion in his home country because the French media doesn’t like what’s popular. The French weekly newspaper “L’Obs” quotes him as saying that they are too elitist.
Serenades for Galapagos giant tortoises
In recent interviews, Clayderman chatted surprisingly freely about his fans. He said on the piano brand Korg’s YouTube channel that he had a German fan who sent him postcards with weather forecasts once or twice a month.
He also brought up an unpleasant anecdote. In February 2013, at the request of the London Zoo, he played sensitive serenades for four Galapagos giant tortoises at the London Zoo. It was hoped that his music would encourage them to reproduce – but in vain. The campaign was inspired by research findings that music can influence the behavior of animals.
The incident caused a terrible stir, he recalled on the radio station “RFI”. He is a good guy and when he sees that people are committed to something, he is happy to do a favor, he explained his involvement in the campaign. What upset him most was that the next day all the media made fun of him.
Interview on “rfi.fr” Interview on “ici.radio-canada.ca”