By Luisa Terzulli
Ludovico Einaudi is not just a pianist, he is an explorer of sound and self.
At the Barbican Centre the last 24th February, first stage of the UK tour to present his latest album “Divenire” [“Becoming” – Author’s note], Ludovico literally enraptured the audience; accompanied by strings and live electronics, the Divenire Tour presents precisely the latest work of the Torinese musician, fruit of a long and deep research, in which sound experimentation and inner and perceptive reflection fuse in a sole flown of energy. The music turns dense, physical, in the hall can be noticed the intensity and the tension though sustained by pervading lightness. That same flown of energy develops through the gentle notes to the chasing crescendos, the sensation transmitted is of travelling with the wind against the face, landscapes going away and thoughts gliding fast.
The key to this journey is evolution, the tie to the past with an eye to the future: Einaudi is a composer who makes use of his own contemporaneity, and places side by side to the classical instruments – himself at the piano, two violins, two violas, one cello and one double bass – the Berliner Robert Lippok at the live electronics. This recent collaboration sets therefore the piano in a new dimension, perhaps wrongfooting to the more traditionalists, lying outside the schemes imposed by the great classical composers. Yet, it is no so extraneous to the music canons: when observing Lippok we see him swinging his head as following the time stressed by an imaginary metronome, and marking with his arm the beat and the upbeat in a kind of electronic solfeggio.
Other fundamental element in the Divenire Tour, to reaffirm the importance of the fusion of components apparently independent, is the light design: the cold shades follow the track drawn by the piano and the synthesisers, to warm up on the swinging of the strings, in an able play of colours and diagonals designed by the Portuguese Miguel Ramos.
Unfailing the encore – Ludovico himself commented in a laughing tone “I have to give an encore, otherwise someone could feel discontented” – after the standing ovation from the audience, applauding with enthusiasm at the end of the concert.
And after the due encore, Einaudi conceded himself to his public for photos and autographs, public who were patiently waiting in a queue embracing half the perimeter of the Barbican.
Ludovico Einaudi will be back to London on 30th March, still at the Barbican Centre, due to the great demand to repeat a show that no doubts will be sold out again. Hurry up then, because the Divenire Tour is not a concert, is an experience.
Copyright 2007 GIORGIOSTUDIO – All rights reserved |
