Featured Artist 6: Ludovico Einaudi
Born in Turin, Italy on November 23rd 1955, Ludovico Einaudi was born into a wealthy family his grandfather was president of Italy and his father had built his own publishing empire. He first discovered the beauty of the piano after hearing his mother playing it as a child. This has still been an inspiration to him now.
Einaudi began his studies at home town with what he describes as “a very traditional teacher� before moving onto begin his formal training at Milan’s Conservatorio di Musica G.Verdi, where he earned diploma in composition, he then studied with the renowned Italian composer Luciano Berio.
Berio had spent a lot of time in America and had begun to create arrangements of Beatles songs and had created arrangements with African vocal music. All of this began to interest Einaudi and encourage him to think outside the strict rules usually associated with classical avant-garde music.
Einaudi’s creative career began with several chamber and orchestral compositions, which were performed at the most important international music institutions including the Tangle wood festival and Teatro Alla Scala.
During the eighties he began to explore various dance and multimedia works such as the critically acclaimed ‘Salgari’, this was a collaboration with the writer Andrea De Carlo, the choreographer Daniel Ezralow, and artist Jerome Sirlin. After his dance and multimedia work Einaudi began to focus on performing solo piano.
Einaudi has also created many film scores including Dr. Zhivago.
Ludovico Einaudi also has a huge love for music outside of the classical realm. He enjoys listening to bands such as The Yard birds, Pink Floyd and Genesis. Einaudi also enjoys playing a Bach arrangement of Lady Jayne by the Rolling Stones!! He also apparently plays the electric guitar.
Discography
Here are the better known CDs by Einaudi there are several others that aren’t readily available which I haven’t included. (I also haven’t included the film scores or chamber pieces)
Stanze (Rooms)
This is his first truly acknowledged released, this is seen as a very minimalist piece of work.
Le Onde (The Waves)
This title Le Onde translates to The Waves. This album is based on Virginia Woolf’s book ‘The Waves’ which views the sea through different perspectives this is mirrored by the song titles on the album. This album contains one of the most famous Einaudi tracks, ‘Le Onde’ or ‘The Waves’ is the track that has been used on the recent John Lewis adverts as well as having extensive air play on classic fm radio.
Eden Roc
This album features other instruments such as a string quartet and even a guitar on the title track
I Giorni (The Days)
This album is apparently based and influenced on a 12th century African song about a hippo. A hunter mistakenly killed a hippo and the song was written as a lament. So the tracks on this album are related to this song.
Echoes (Best Of)
This is probably the best introduction to Einaudi’s work. It is a best of containing a wide range of Einaudi’s solo piano work.
La Scala (Live)
This is the latest release and is a live CD recorded at La Scala, Italy.
Song Recommendations
As the songs can be found by both their English and Italian names I will put both
Le Onde (The Waves)
Eden Roc
Nefeli
Bella Notte (Beautiful Night)
Calm (Calmo)
I Giorni (The Days)
But for the best introduction just go out and buy ‘Echoes’
Links
www.ludovicoeinaudi.com – A great help writing this FA