Richard Clayderman performs live in Manila

MANILA, Philippines- French pianist Richard Clayderman is visiting the Philippines for the first time.

His visit is to promote his latest album titled “Romantique,” which contains 13 tracks and some of which are from plays, others from modern songs, and the rest are his compositions.

Due to his limited comprehension of the English language, Richard had an interpreter during his presscon Thursday afternoon, November 14.

Before the Q&A started, he expressed how glad he was to finally visit Philippines after  his 40 years  in the industry.

“I’m very happy to be in the Philippines because it’s actually my first time,” he said in French. “Unfortunately, it’s a very unpleasant time for the country. I’m aware of the devastation that happened due to the typhoon at the certain areas of the country. But despite everything, I’m really happy to be with you here today.”

He then related how he worked on his latest album, which finally materialized after a decade of waiting.

“It’s actually this group from Holland who contacted me, who wanted me to make this album,” he said. “For their part, they have several tracks that they wanted me to record and I had my own tracks that I wanted to record.

“So that’s how the album included tracks from the musical such as Les Misérables, The West Side Story, and also includes tracks like 'You Raise Me Up' and I had an opportunity to be accompanied by a grand orchestra.”

Now on the fourth leg of his Asian album promotion, Richard Clayderman will be having a show here in Manila.

The pianist is excited and at the same time anxious of how the Filipino audience will react to his performance.

“I look forward to the reaction of the audience that I’ll have,” he said with a wide smile.

“Actually it’s true that after my 40 years in the business, to come in a new country is really a great challenge because it’s always a challenge to find out how the audience will react to my performance.”

Richard Clayderman’s show will be held on November 16, Saturday, 8 p.m. at the PICC Plenary Hall.