Pianist, ship, piano and the endless icy expanses of the North Pole. With this scenario, the Italian composer Ludovico Einaudi wanted to pay homage to one of the most characteristic places on the planet, promoting the Greenpeace campaign for the protection of the polar environment.
Pianist on the ocean of ice - Ludovico Einaudi
The pianist Einaudi, with his Elegy for the Arctic, played off the Wahlenbergbreen glacier near the Svalbard Islands in Norway, joined the chorus of over eight million people clamoring for the salvation of that fragile ecosystem, weakened year after year by global warming and the massive exploitation of its resources.
The composer embarked with other activists on the ship Arctic Sunrise, set sail from the Svalbard islands, and once off the glacier gave birth to a more unique than rare exhibition. The song Elegy for the Arctic it was in fact written specifically for the campaign Save the Arctic and played for the first time right in the polar ice, with the hope of further sensitizing the members of the OSPAR (Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment of the North-East Atlantic) on the eve of the approval of a project that provides for the construction of a protected area of 226 thousand square kilometers within the Arctic Ocean, but which sees strong opposition from the Nordic governments of Norway, Iceland and Denmark.
The participation of one of the greatest composers currently in circulation will certainly have a considerable media impact. Einaudi is in fact considered a real excellence in the international music scene. His more than 750.000 records sold and his performances in the most important world stages such as La Scala in Milan, the Philharmonic Hall in Liverpool, the Royal Albert Hall in London, the Philharmonie in Berlin, the Olympia in Paris or the Sydney Opera House in Sydney, place him by right among the greats of music.
In 2013 he was awarded the title of "Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres" by the Minister of Culture and Communication of the French Republic for the success and originality of his songs and was, again in 2013, the only Italian to play at the iTunes Festival.
Another great satisfaction for Einaudi will surely have been to play during the traditional Christmas speech of the Queen of England at Buckingham Palace in the annual Queen's speech. Honor that certainly does not belong to everyone.
The story of Ludovico Einaudi is full of successes, coming after years of intense studies and sacrifices, and at the moment sees the Turin pianist engaged in a noble cause such as that of environmental protection. The Arctic question has in fact a valid support in the composer, as evidenced by his recent declarations as soon as he returned from the expedition, with which he defines that long and boundless white expanse "not a desert, but a place full of life».
Einaudi was able to see directly with his eyes the beauty, and the fragility, of that ecosystem that hosts flora and fauna much larger than we can imagine.This explosion of life, sudden and unexpected for the Italian pianist, has inspired the composition of his Elegy for the Arctic, thus giving music to that only apparently silent place. And we are more than sure that his notes will echo among those ice forever.
