The Netherlands-based violinist and conductor Andre
Rieu has become a genuine Eurozone phenomenon with his pops-concert extravaganzas, and he even has a substantial following in the U.S. thanks to the broadcast of video versions of concerts like this one on the periodic fundraisers of the Public Broadcasting Service television network in that country. The market is awash in
Rieu discs of various kinds, some of them going back to his early years as a sort of modern-day Waltz King, but this one is current, marketed on
Rieu's present label Denon. His recent programs have been big thematic productions, and Andre Rieu in Wonderland is no exception. Recorded in audiophile sound and filmed at an amusement park called Efteling in the Netherlands, it combines classical selections and Broadway songs in a loose evocation of the wonder of childhood and of fairy tales, with standards such as music from Swan Lake mixed in with less expected items such as
Max Steiner's "Tara's Theme" from the soundtrack of Gone with the Wind.