Before Sir Anthony Hopkins was a world famous actor, garnering fame for portraying one of the all time great villains, Hannibal Lecter, he was a driftless young man, a poor student more interested in expressing himself through painting, acting and music than sitting in a classroom. One gloomy day in 1964, Anthony was tickling the ivories in the green room of the Liverpool Playhouse, when someone walked in and asked what he was playing. Bashfully, Anthony said it was something he wrote and the person encouraged him to write it down, so he did, and “The Waltz Goes On” was composed, but never performed. That was until it got the hands of “The King Of the Waltz” André Rieu. Mr. Rieu was surprised when a score by Sir Anthony Hopkins crossed his desk.

“A lot of people send me their waltzes – every week, in fact. But when I got a call from my office early last year, I was surprised when they said Sir Anthony Hopkins was sending me one, as I didn’t know he had a musical side. But I figured a man like him wouldn’t send me a bad waltz.“

Hopkins’ wife had secretly sent the score to Rieu, after they watched him perform on TV, with Anthony expressing his desire to have the waltz performed in Vienna. Rieu rehearsed the piece with his orchestra and loved it, he called up Hopkins and played the rehearsal recording for him and he loved it too. The work received its premiere at a concert hall in Vienna on July of 2011 with Rieu’s orchestra. The piece would also be the title track of Rieu’s upcoming album.

This however wasn’t Hopkins’ first foray into music, nor his last In 1986, he attempted to launch a pop career with the Leonard Cohen-esq track, Distant Star. And after his music was performed by Rieu, The City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra of England, dedicated a night of performances of his compositions, this Waltz goes on.