Ludovico Einaudi

Ludovico Maria Enrico Einaudi OMRI (; born 23 November 1955) is an Italian pianist and composer. Trained at the Conservatorio Verdi in Milan, Einaudi began his career as a classical composer, later incorporating other styles and genres such as pop, rock, folk, and world music.

Einaudi has composed the scores for a number of films and television productions, including This Is England, The Intouchables, I'm Still Here, the TV series Doctor Zhivago, and Acquario (1996), for which he won the Grolla d'oro. His music was used as the score for the Golden Globe and Academy Award-winning films Nomadland and The Father.

He has also released a number of solo albums for piano and other instruments, notably I Giorni in 2001, Nightbook in 2009, and In a Time Lapse in 2013. On 1 March 2019, Einaudi announced a seven-part project named Seven Days Walking, which was released over the course of seven months in 2019.

In 2005, he was appointed an Officer of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic.

Early life and education

Einaudi was born in Turin, Piedmont. His father, Giulio Einaudi, was a publisher His paternal grandfather, Luigi Einaudi, was President of Italy between 1948 and 1955. His mother, Renata Aldrovandi, played the piano to him as a child. Her father, Waldo Aldrovandi, was a pianist, opera conductor, and composer who emigrated to Australia after World War II.

Einaudi started composing music as a teenager, first writing by playing a folk guitar. He began his musical training at the Conservatorio Verdi in Milan, obtaining a diploma in composition in 1982. That same year he took an orchestration class taught by Luciano Berio and was awarded a scholarship to the Tanglewood Music Festival. According to Einaudi, "Luciano Berio did some interesting work with African vocal music and did some arrangements of Beatles songs, and he taught me that there is a sort of dignity inside music. I learnt orchestration from him and a very open way of thinking about music."

In the mid-1980s, he began to search for more personal expression in a series of works for dance and multimedia, Time Out in 1988, a dance-theatre piece created with writer Andrea De Carlo,

In 2004, his soundtrack for Sotto falso nome received the prize for the best film music at the Avignon Film Festival. His "Due Tramonti" was featured in the film I'm Still Here (2010), directed by Casey Affleck. His composition "Nuvole Bianche" was featured in the film Insidious (2010), directed by James Wan, the British TV drama This Is England 86, and in the TV series Derek (2012), directed by and starring Ricky Gervais. To The Intouchables (2011), the biggest box office movie in French history, he contributed the tracks "Fly", "Writing Poems", "L'origine nascosta", "Cache-cache", "Una Mattina", and "Primavera." The film This Is England featured Fuori dal mondo and Dietro casa. The British TV drama series This Is England '88 also contained the tracks "Fuori Dalla Notte", "Solo" (a bonus track from Nightbook), "Berlin Song", and "Distacco".

Solo releases

Einaudi is signed to Decca Records and is published by Chester Music Limited, part of the Music Sales Group of Companies.

thumb|left|270px|Ludovico Einaudi at [[Quirinal Palace in 2008]]

After the multi-media-inspired Time Out in 1988, in 1992 he released Stanze, which he had composed for harp. The album was performed by Cecilia Chailly, one of the first musicians to use an electric harp. Einaudi released his first solo piano album, Le Onde, in 1996, under BMG. The album is based on the novel The Waves by British writer Virginia Woolf, and enjoyed mainstream success, particularly in Italy and the UK. and attracted much interest due to Greg James' airing of the piece on BBC Radio 1 in June 2011. James mentioned that he found the piece therapeutic when he was studying at university. Due to repeated airings that month, the track entered the UK Singles Chart at No. 32 on 12 June 2011.

In 2003, Einaudi released the live album La Scala Concert 03.03.03, which was recorded at the famous La Scala opera house in Milan. His 2003 album Diario Mali is another collaboration, with Einaudi on piano and Malian musician Ballaké Sissoko on kora. In 2004, Einaudi released the album Una Mattina on Decca Records. with US and Canadian supporting tours. He also appeared on KCRW in Los Angeles. On 17 September 2013, Einaudi performed various songs from In a Time Lapse, together with a new ensemble, at the annual iTunes Festival held at the Roundhouse in London. The group intimately rehearsed this performance in the barn of Einaudi's house. In March 2016, the world premiere of a new piano concerto, "Domino", took place at the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra.

Style

Einaudi's music is generally characterised by minimalist structures and repetitive melodic patterns, with the piano being his primary medium. Among his influences are composers such as Karlheinz Stockhausen and Luciano Berio. Einaudi has described an interest in exploring connections between classical composition and other musical traditions, reflecting a broader aim to create music that is direct and emotionally accessible to a wide audience.

Einaudi's musical style has contributed to significant commercial success and a broad international fan base. He has been described as one of the most-streamed classical artists worldwide, with recordings that attract listeners beyond traditional classical music audiences. He is popular, especially among learners, selling accompanying scores to his albums and being cited as an inspiration to many who take up the piano. His music has sometimes attracted criticism within the classical establishment, yet it has also achieved a rare level of popularity for contemporary instrumental composition,

In a review of Elements, Classicalite's Steve Nagel writes that "because Einaudi errs so much on the side of minimalism and pop that it might be more appropriate to label his music as a product of the New Age movement, which—although seemingly less ambitious than broader classical structures—concentrates more on relaxation, cohesion, elements of nature and an air of optimism". Ben Beaumont-Thomas of The Guardian, in an unfavorable review of a 2016 live performance, critiques Einaudi the performer with "[he] casts himself as the antithesis to the stuffy conservatoire—but then plays music that is less adventurous than your average indie band's", complaining that "Einaudi compounds this by being a mediocre pianist. He can finesse a phrase, but is proudly anti-virtuosic, playing only simple arpeggios and limpid four-note melodies".

Personal life

In 2016, Einaudi participated in the Greenpeace campaign to save the Arctic.

Discography

thumb|right|260px|Einaudi in 2008

Studio albums

Time Out (various instruments; experimental) (1988)
Stanze (harp) (1992)
Salgari (various instruments; ballet) (1995)
Le Onde (piano) (1996)
Eden Roc (piano and strings) (1999)
I Giorni (piano) (2001)
Diario Mali (piano, kora) (2003)
Una Mattina (piano, cello) (2004)
Divenire (piano, string orchestra, electronic) (2006)
Nightbook (piano, electronic) (2009)
In a Time Lapse (piano, electronic) (2013)
Taranta Project (piano, electronic, orchestra, cello, kora) (2015)
Elements (piano, electronic, orchestra) (2015)
Seven Days Walking (piano, violin, viola, cello) (2019)
12 Songs from Home (piano) (2020)
Underwater (piano) (2022)
The Summer Portraits (piano, string orchestra) (2025)
Solo Piano (2026)

Live albums

La Scala Concert 03.03.03 (2003)
Live in Berlin (2007)
iTunes Festival: London 2007 (2007)
Live in Prague (2009)
The Royal Albert Hall Concert (2010)
La notte della Taranta 2010 (2011)
iTunes Festival: London 2013 (2013)
In a Time Lapse Tour (2014)
Elements, Special Tour Edition (2016)

Compilations

Echoes: The Einaudi Collection (2003)
I primi capolavori (2010)
Islands: Essential Einaudi (2011)
Einaudi Essentiel (2012)
Undiscovered (2020)
Cinema (2021)
Moments of Peace (2023)
Music of Care (2023)
Undiscovered II (2023)

Remixes

Table Vs Ludovico Einaudi (2002)
Elements, Remixes (2016)

Singles

"Ultimi Fuochi" (1998)
"Blusound" (2001)
"Night" (2015)
"Elements" (2015)
"Drop" (2015)
"Elegy for the Arctic" (2016)
"Luminous" (2021)
"Rose Bay" (2024)

With Whitetree

Cloudland (2009)

Film and television scores

thumb|right|270px|Einaudi at a solo performance in 2008

Treno di panna (Director: Andrea De Carlo) (1988)
Da qualche parte in città (Director: Michele Sordillo) (1994)
Acquario (Director: Michele Sordillo) (1996)
Aprile (Director: Nanni Moretti) (1998)
Giorni dispari (Director: Dominick Tambasco) (1998)
Fuori dal mondo (Director: Giuseppe Piccioni) (1999)
La vita altrui (Director: Michele Sordillo) (2000)
Un delitto impossibile (Director: Antonio Luigi Grimaldi) (2000)
Le parole di mio padre (Director: Francesca Comencini) (2001)
Alexandreia (Director: Maria Iliou) (2001)
Luce dei miei occhi (Director: Giuseppe Piccioni) – Italian music award for best film score (2002)
Doctor Zhivago (TV mini-series, Director: Giacomo Campiotti) (2002)
Sotto falso nome (Director: Roberto Andò) – Prize for the best film music at Avignon Film Festival 2004 (2004)
Mission: Saturn (2004)
This Is England (Director: Shane Meadows) (2006)
This Is England '86 (Director: Shane Meadows) (2011)
Intouchables – (Director: Olivier Nakache & Eric Toledano) (2011)
Primavera – (Gary Speed RIP Documentary: Sport Wales) (2011)
J. Edgar – (Director: Clint Eastwood) (2012)
Derek (pilot episode) – (Director: Ricky Gervais) (2012)
The Water Diviner – (Director: Russell Crowe) (2014)
Mommy – (Director: Xavier Dolan) (2014)
This Is England '90 – (Director: Shane Meadows) (2015)
The Third Murder – (Director: Hirokazu Koreeda) (2017)
The Father – (Director: Florian Zeller) (2020)
Nomadland – (Director: Chloé Zhao) (2020)
Cosmos: Possible Worlds – (TV series, director: Ann Druyan; episode: "The Sacrifice of Cassini", score by Alan Silvestri) (2020)
The Braid – (Director: Laetitia Colombani) (2023)

Commercials, other

thumb|right|Einaudi at a concert in [[Moscow, 12 September 2014]]

BBC – background music to minute of silence for recent racing deaths before Formula 1 Airtel Grand Prix of India (30 October). (2011)
Airtel India TV commercial – excerpt from "I Giorni". (2011)
Procter & Gamble TV commercial "The Best Job" for the Olympics 2012 (). (2012)
Numerous episodes of the BBC's Top Gear including the 2009 Bolivia Special.
Year of creation unknown: National Basketball Association (NBA) of America, .
James May's Toy Stories Christmas Special, excerpt from "Divenire". (2012)
"The Snow Prelude N. 03 in C Major" background music to the Nationwide Building Society's adverts. (2012)
Vodafone RED, excerpt from "Walk". (2013)
BBC – The Apprentice – Episode 7: Caravans (Lady Labyrinth & The Crane Dance). (2013)
British Airways Advert: , "Experience (Starkey Remix)" for commercial (2013)
Één 'BIRTHDAY', Belgian documentary by photographer Lieve Blancquaert (nl.wikipedia) – 9 episodes. – "Life" as intro and outro track
"The Book Thief" international trailer – "Life" – .
"Moving Art" Louie Schwartzberg, Netflix series. (2013)
"Valiant Hearts: The Great War" first-look trailer – "Fly" . (2013)
Procter & Gamble TV commercial for the Sochi 2014 Olympics – "Primavera". (2014)
Alan Watts spiritual guide, Choices – "Experience" . (2014)
Nike Golf ad, Rory Mcilroy tribute to Tiger Woods – "Nuvole Bianche". (2015)
ANZ Australia: , "Experience" for commercial. (2015)
UFC 193 Promo Video: UFC 193: Rousey vs. Holly Holm – , "Experience". (2015)
BBC: "Fly" used as the theme music to TV series Doctor Foster. (2015)
RTVE: "Nuvole Bianche" used as the theme music of 2015 Spanish Lottery commercial. (2015)
BBC MasterChef: The Professionals, "Life" was used when a winner was announced. (2015)
SKY Sports, "Experience" music for commercial and other features for the 2016 Golf Open. (2016)
Procter & Gamble TV commercial for the Rio 2016 Olympics, "Experience" music for commercial. (2016)
Amazon Prime – A Priest and Imam meet for a cup of tea. Excerpt from "I Giorni". (2016)
Sense8 series finale "Amor Vincit Omnia", "Experience" was played during the closing scene. (2018)

References

External links

Ludovico Einaudi on SoundCloud
Ludovico Einaudi – Virtual International Philharmonic