Nine billion streams a year. That’s the sheer scale on which the music of Ludovico Einaudi reaches audiences. The Italian, who will be 70 this November, is courteous and genial in person – I interviewed him in Montreal a couple of years ago – but is also, patently, a superstar.
In his new, 13-track album, The Summer Portraits (Decca Records), he has nostalgic and personal stories to tell. The annual break from school in the Sixties would stretch out from early June right into the beginning of September, so “Punta Bianca” captures the kind of dolcefarniente, spaciousness one might expect. Einaudi re-connects with boyhood summer holidays in Bocca di Magra, and for the video of “Rose Bay”, has released some grainy home video footage to accompany the track. Calm reigns: in a track such as “Pathos” which does ratchet up the intensity and passion, there is an almost inevitable return to calm and equanimity before the piece takes its leave.
There are other personal stories too, notably the fact that Einaudi’s maternal grandfather, Wando Aldrovandi, a conductor, refused to work for the fascists, and left Italy for Australia when Einaudi’s mother was only 12 years old. The track “Rose Bay” has the piano as a reassuring presence and a rhythmic anchor among flickering string sounds and some electronic processing. Einaudi sets great store by producing music which has an emotional candour and simplicity but a produced structure which is uncopiable. The deceptive asymmetries of the opening sections of “Episode One” briefly conjure up that unease, before ostinato and repetition remove the doubt.
The lead instrumental voice is almost invariably Einaudi’s piano. He records the piano tracks in his home studio in the Southern Piedmont, Melo Fiorito in Dogliani, but thereafter there is a whole production process involving recordings at Abbey Road – individual strings, string orchestra, percussion, some light ambient electronics – and a major involvement from the influential Berlin-based producer, engineer and score mixer Francesco Donadello.
The UK has had a particular story in the way Ludovico Einaudi’s music has been received – and appreciated (or not) ever since the early 1990s. On the one hand, it is an intrinsic part of the history, commercial success and brand identity of Classic FM, but the Italian has also always had his detractors and naysayers in this country.
That kind of long-entrenched animosity don't trouble him, or indeed Universal/ Decca any more. The stories and biographical opening-up around “The Summer Portraits” are being claimed to be demystification, which might be overclaiming, but they won’t do any harm. It is exactly what the pianist/composer's loyal, increasingly and even surprisingly young fan base want and expect. Einaudi clearly has another hit on his hands.
