André Rieu wants Anthony Hopkins to tour with him after performing waltz actor composed in his 20s

André Rieu says he wants to ask Sir Anthony Hopkins to tour with him and his famous Johann Strauss Orchestra after being impressed by the actor’s musical abilities.

The world-famous violinist and conductor, 74, first met Hopkins, 86, in 2011 when the two-time Oscar winner approached him via telephone about performing a waltz that he had composed in his 20s.

Together, Rieu says that they created a “masterpiece” with the composition titled And The Waltz Goes On, eventually performing it with his orchestra at a concert in Rieu’s native Maastricht.

Hopkins meanwhile could be seen watching on in the audience wiping away tears of pride.

The Silence of the Lambs actor often delights his fans by sharing videos of him playing the piano online, however the maestro says he was completely unaware that he played.

“He never said that!” exclaimed Rieu while talking to the Standard ahead of his latest shows at the OVO Arena Wembley on May 15 and May 18.

“It’s a good idea!” he said of performing together, “that would be nice Anthony Hopkins on tour! I will ask him definitely.

He’s much more celebrity than me. I was really very honoured that he asked me to play his waltz.

“I was rehearsing with my orchestra and someone came in and said there’s a phone call, it’s Anthony Hopkins. I said ‘THE Anthony Hopkins?’

“Everybody knows his voice and he said I composed a waltz when I was 25 years old and living in Wales as a young musician and there I met Richard Burton and he said ‘you will never earn money as a musician so be an actor’ so that’s what I did, I moved to LA and made my career.

“But this waltz, is still in my head and it was never played. My wife saw you on American television and said ‘that’s the man who is going to play your waltz’.

André Rieu pictured with his famous Johann Strauss Orchestra (Marcel van Hoorn)

“I said send me your score because I had my orchestra here and that’s what he did. We had the first draft and we sent it back to him, and he liked it, so we worked again and changed here and there a little thing and he came to Maastricht and that was the story.”

On the changes that were made to the Hollywood favourite’s original, Rieu said: “It was only in his head so I think a conductor and an orchestra has the right to improve it so we did.

“It’s a very, very nice waltz, it’s like movie music at the beginning and then it becomes a waltz like the Viennese Waltz. I think the two of us made a masterpiece out of it. It was really nice to work with him.”

Rieu is often credited with breathing new life into the waltz and has been dubbed the King of the Waltz (although he insists that Johann Strauss was the real king in that department).

While he insists that he never intends to retire amid his plan to live to 140, Rieu thinks that going forward, the future of the waltz is secure.

André Rieu has been dubbed the King of the Waltz (Marcel van Hoorn)

“When there are people who are performing the waltz in the proper way, when you play as it should be played, you see the whole audience start smiling and moving and getting up without me saying to get up and dancing in the aisles and that has touched them.

“A good waltz played is a mirror of life. A waltz is not only ‘ha ha ha’ and melancholy but it’s both; everything in life is in a waltz, that’s why I love the waltz. Also humour is in the waltz.

“I think the waltz will stay forever,” he concluded.

For more information on André Rieu and to buy tickets, visit www.andrerieu.com.

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