Move over, Beethoven. A modern composer is winning classical music.
| Washington
On the eve of his U.S. , Ludovico Einaudi enters the Watergate hotel with a mild-mannered stroll. An evening networking event has transformed the lobby into a chicken coop. Young professionals strut in close proximity, squawking with laughter and pecking at their drinks. They pay little attention to the bespectacled composer trying to pick a path through them to meet his interviewer.聽
Your correspondent shakes Mr. Einaudi鈥檚 hand, gestures to the baby grand piano in the lobby, and half-jokingly asks if he鈥檇 like to play it. Mr. Einaudi smiles and shakes his head. A cocktail party is hardly a conducive atmosphere for hushed compositions such as his latest project, 鈥淪even Days Walking.鈥�
鈥淲ith my music, I like that it is more like an inner experience,鈥� the Italian musician explains later.
Why We Wrote This
Ludovico Einaudi鈥檚 work is streamed by millions of people, setting him apart from other classical composers. What inspires him to craft music that helps people escape overscheduled, digital lives? We sat down with him to ask.
The lively networkers have unwittingly missed out on a free performance by a man who鈥檚 just about to play venues such as the nearby Kennedy Center and New York City鈥檚 Carnegie Hall. But the lobby revelers may already have heard Mr. Einaudi鈥檚 music anyway: He鈥檚 the most streamed classical artist in the world. His work, which has cumulatively racked up 2 billion streams, spans piano-based chamber music, orchestral pieces laced with electronic textures, and ambitious compositions that connect indigenous musical traditions from across the globe. What鈥檚 driving the demand? Perhaps it鈥檚 the mindful quality of his music, an organic escape from the hubbub of overscheduled, digital lives.
鈥淲orking with Ludovico on 鈥楾he Taranta Project,鈥� I saw his qualities as leader of a large and diverse group of musicians 鈥� from West African griots to Japanese Taiko drummers, electronica artists, and Southern Italian traditional players,鈥� says Justin Adams, a solo artist and longtime guitarist in Robert Plant鈥檚 band, in an email. 鈥淗e led with calm grace and good humour, with humility and a beautiful limpid touch on the piano. He manages to make music that is direct and clear and straight to the heart, uncluttered by pretension or technical over-complication.鈥�
As someone who appreciates quiet, Mr. Einaudi seeks refuge from the lobby in a nearby room with tulip-shaped, midcentury modern chairs. Comfortably seated, the maestro explains how was inspired by a daily hike along the same trail in the Swiss Alps. The project consists of seven albums 鈥� he鈥檚 releasing a new one each month through September 鈥� that explore variations of a theme. If the concept sounds as heady as the altitude at which it was conceived, the music is grounded in accessible, piano-based melodies in the minimalist tradition of the influential 19th-to-20th-century French composer Erik Satie. Each of the seven albums has a different mood that reflects different approaches to the recurring motifs.
鈥淢y vision of this piece of music was similar to my walk, because most of the time I was doing the same route with some variations,鈥� he reflects, sometimes pausing to search for words in English. 鈥淚 wanted to create something that was like a continuum of music, not just in terms of instrumentation, but also in terms of how the music is built and connected. Similar to how, for example, if you take a suite of Bach, you play the minuet and then you go to the gigue and then to the saraband. It鈥檚 like you end one and you enter into the other one with different movements, but they are all connected as part of one idea.鈥�
Questing for inspiration
The most difficult part of the writing process, he admits, is staving off boredom by searching for inspirational fuel that sets his inner pilot light ablaze. He鈥檚 constantly searching for fresh musical approaches. To hear Mr. Einaudi tell it, his surprise success is the unintended result of that questing nature. At first, his musical career followed a seemingly ordained path. Born to a pair of pianists, Mr. Einaudi graduated from the prestigious Milan Conservatory in 1982. But he quickly tired of adhering to the conventions of his training.
鈥淚 felt that the academic world was in a way controlling my freedom. And the reasons why I started to make music were connected to the freedom that I wanted to express,鈥� he explains. 鈥淪o at a certain point I felt that I had to be completely sincere with myself and follow my vision and my credo.鈥�
If anything, he shuns an intellectual approach to music, opting for instinctively embracing uncomplicated beauty 鈥� an approach that has resonated with his many listeners. From the time he was a young composer, he has yearned to experiment with different textures and also occasionally draw from his love of rock and pop. (He cites Radiohead, Portishead, Massive Attack, and alt-J as current examples.) Mr. Einaudi initially found liberation by writing for dance companies. Later, he was commissioned to pen scores for Italian arthouse movies and soundtracks for British TV shows, such as 鈥淒octor Zhivago.鈥� His popularity has grown alongside his substantial body of work, which has garnered radio play and been excerpted for TV spots. The academic world now views him as a black sheep, he says.
Grounded by natural spaces
More recently, Mr. Einaudi received attention for partnering with a very different high-profile collaborator: Greenpeace. In 2016, the environmental group filmed the pianist performing a solo piece, while floating on a barge in the Arctic Ocean. The acoustics are enhanced by nearby glaciers.
鈥淭here was a moment where I was playing that there was a coincidence between what I was doing with the piano and the wall of ice falling down,鈥� he recalls. 鈥淢y body was completely covered with different layers and, of course, my hands couldn鈥檛 have gloves. I was stopping every five minutes to warm them up.鈥�
Indeed, Mr. Einaudi鈥檚 work often takes its cues from nature, whether it鈥檚 the musical connections to geometry behind his 2015 album 鈥淓lements,鈥� or the nocturnal play of shadows and light that informs his 2009 record On 鈥淪even Days Walking,鈥� compositions have self-explanatory titles such as and Mr. Einaudi recalls feverishly scribbling those musical ideas with a pencil.
鈥淚 love to look at those manuscripts because I can see that there鈥檚 a lot of energy in the paper,鈥� says the musician.
Asked where he thinks the music comes from, Mr. Einaudi pauses to think.
鈥淭here鈥檚 something that is, of course, part of your background, part of your interest in what you have done in your life. Part of this is also something unknown,鈥� he muses. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 know if there is a spiritual force. ... I mean, I don鈥檛 say yes or no 鈥� I don鈥檛 think too much about it 鈥� but I can accept the idea.鈥�
The following night at the Kennedy Center, Mr. Einaudi is accompanied by the other two musicians on 鈥淪even Days Walking鈥�: Redi Hasa on cello and Federico Mecozzi on violin and viola. Half-shadowed by lighting that changes like phases of the moon, the trio are keenly attuned to each other鈥檚 delicate touch. Perched over the keyboard, often as still as a praying mantis, Mr. Einaudi leaves notes suspended in the air. The music鈥檚 spaciousness and tranquility are transportive.
鈥淧eople say, 鈥業 was so relaxed at your concert,鈥欌�� Mr. Einaudi noted during the previous day鈥檚 interview. 鈥淧eople get lost in their thoughts. Inside themselves, they start to have like a sort of internal voyage into their life. And this is more interesting because I think it鈥檚 a form of meditation that happens. I quite like that the concert generates a sort of inner experience in the deep.鈥�
