BY SAMUEL COTTELL
There’s something unassuming about Ludovico Einaudi. He sports grey hair, cool horn-rimmed glasses, and is often pictured in jeans and converse sneakers.
This is not quite the image of a man who is one of the most popular ‘classical’ musicians of today. I use the term ‘classical’ loosely, as his music defies genre and classification – you could call it pop, classical, minimalism, and you’d be correct on all counts. He has gained an international legion of fans and was recently dubbed the ‘most streamed classical artist’.
“I like when the music takes you inside a vortex and you surrender to it,” Einaudi says of his concert experiences.
His latest album was inspired by different sources: the narration of the creation of the world by Empedocles, Euclid’s Elements, the periodic table, Point and Line to Plane by Kandinsky. As Einaudi says, they’re all “different minds and views with a common point: trying to understand the world and to explain it”.
“This also was my point of view and I was lucky to have found great minds that helped me to understand better what I was trying to do. There was a very interesting period of diving into experimentation with different sounds and forms, at the end only a part of this process became Elements.”
Einaudi is one of those rare musicians who still composes and performs his own music. His piano playing isn’t virtuosic, yet it is just as engaging. Simplicity is the word here, yet he draws his audiences in on an emotional journey. I ask him where he thought that he, as an artist, fits within the classical music scene:
“I don’t know where my place is in classical music. I am already occupied in composing and performing – maybe someone else should think about it,” he shares. “My concerts are different from most of the traditional classical concerts for the reason that I compose and perform my music, while most classical performances are interpreting music.”
The Italian-born musician has been a staple of the film industry for the past few decades, and you have probably heard his music in the form of his award-winning film and television scores including Doctor Zhivago (2002) and Sotto Falso Nome (2004), both of which also became successful albums in their own rights. Einaudi trained as a classical composer and pianist at the Milan Conservatorio before continuing his studies with Luciano Berio, which gave him the grounding to compose in a complex classical idiom. This is something he has since abandoned in favour of his own approach, which has seen him forge a successful career.
So, what is it that inspires him to compose in this way? “I have been inspired musically by a very diverse range of music, books, philosophy, art and photography. I sketch a lot of ideas [by] improvising at the piano. Then I also experiment with recording and layering sounds. But I like to work with the idea of a project in mind – it gives me a direction; it’s like a funnel where the creative energies converge.”
We chat about the reasons there may be for people appreciating his music. “I am very happy that so many people around the world are loving my music. It’s difficult for me to understand why this happens. I guess people find certain emotions and a certain abstraction open to different interpretations,” he explains.
“A musical performance can create multiple experiences. The sound can take you into a very rich and complex journey of meanings, emotions, and inner reflections. Someone [once] told me that when they attended one of my performances, it was like viewing an art installation and a having a spiritual experience. I very much like this idea.”
Earlier this year, Einaudi performed his composition Elegy for the Arctic on a floating platform in the Arctic ocean as ice glaciers collapsed in the background. This was more than a musical performance, but a statement for climate change and the future of planet earth.
“I was approached by the team of Greenpeace from Spain. They asked me if I wanted to join the campaign Save the Arctic, with the mad idea of playing between the ice. I was immediately attracted by the idea of supporting the campaign and to go in the Arctic sea to perform. And it was great to be there – inspiring, romantic and beautiful; perhaps the most dramatic landscape that I saw in my life. It felt like I was playing for the gods. The video and my music created a strong and poetic emotion that has hit the mark.”
Far from the Arctic Ocean, Einaudi is set to return to Australia as part of his Elements tour, performing at the Sydney Opera House. “It’s one of those iconic places of the world that you always want to go back to. I have the memory from last time of one of the best sounds of the applause from the audience. I want to hear it again,” Einaudi says – and you can almost detect a smile in his voice.
See Ludovico Einaudi on tour, starting at the Adelaide Festival Centre on February 8 and finishing up at the Sydney Opera House from February 15-17. Tickets available online.
Image supplied. Credit: Prudence Upton.
