In a Time Lapse

Einaudi’s In a Time Lapse was released on 21 January, 2013. We see in this album a distinct movement towards piano with small-scale orchestration. This enhances both the dynamic range of the music and the harmonic complexity. It also creates a greater diversity of tone and colour. There is a trance-like quality to the music and it is rich in feeling. The reviews of this album were extremely positive when it was first released.

One of my favourite pieces on this album is “Experience”. This is a beautifully lyrical piece and is well-known for its dynamic, energetic central theme. The piece is full of emotional nuance. My recording below attempts to capture the “feel” of this work. In this recording, I have added a small scale string accompaniment.

Elements

On 22 September 2012 Einaudi performed a project called “The Elements” at the Auditorium Parco Della Musica in Rome as a tribute to his mentor, Luciano Berio. The album is inspired by the four elements of air, water, earth, and fire.

The album Elements was released on 16 October 2015. Of the album, Einaudi says: “I saw new frontiers — on the edge between what I knew and what I didn’t know — that I had long wanted to explore: creation myths, the periodic table, Euclid’s geometry, Kandinsky’s writings, the matter of sound and of colour, the stems of wild grass in a meadow, the shapes of the landscape…”

Each track evolves from a theme, proceeding through a series of rhythmic and tonal developments, evoking a journey through an expanding range of thoughts and feelings.

For the first time in his career in anticipation of the album release, Einaudi made available piano scores of two tracks, “Elements” and “Night”, complete with the free original backing tracks.

The title track “Elements” begins with small, “heartbeat” – like gesture on the bass and guitar and enhanced by the Rhodes motif (on the piano). The piece builds to its inevitable climax with the full, momentous force of the string orchestra. The Amsterdam Sinfonietta provides the backdrop to this exhilarating piece of music. The beauty of the piece resides in the centrality of the piano as it weaves its way energetically through to the musical climax towards the end of the piece.

In addition to Einaudi, performers on the album include usual collaborators Francesco Arcuri, Marco Decimo, Mauro Durante, Alberto Fabris, Federico Mecozzi and Redi Hasa, as well as the Amsterdam Sinfonietta string ensemble, Robert Lippok, Mauro Lefosco, and on “Petricor”, violinist Daniel Hope.

This is my recording of ‘Elements’.

Seven Days Walking

Einaudi wrote these beautiful sketches of nature, moods and weather while walking through the snow-capped mountains of Switzerland. 

In January 2018, Einaudi frequently went on walks in the Alps, “always following more or less the same trail.” He revealed that during the heavy snow, his “thoughts roamed free inside the storm, where all shapes, stripped bare by the cold, lost their contours and colours,” allowing him to construct the “musical labyrinth” present on the records. The composer also took a series of polaroid pictures, inspiring him to express his thoughts, perceptions and feelings in the music.

Seven Days Walking is a set of albums. The project consists of seven volumes of music released over the course of seven months, beginning with the first volume, Seven Days Walking: Day One, on 15 March 2019. The albums feature Einaudi on piano, Federico Mecozzi on violin and viola, and Redi Hasa on cello. A complete box set of the project was released on 22 November 2019.

Below is my recording of one of my favourite pieces on this album, ‘Golden Butterflies’, I hope this piece conveys something of the beauty and style of this work.

The albums collectively explore the notion that when we view some aspect of the world at different times, we perceive it afresh each time. The world we observe changes subtly, almost imperceptibly. Our perspective of the world, physically, psychologically and emotionally is constantly in flux. This creates in us a sense of a wonder and appreciation of the natural world around us. This fluctuation in our experience of the world is reflected in the thematic variations throughout “Seven Days Walking” where we hear the same melodies couched in slightly different arrangements, rhythms and tonal “colours”. These reflect the often subtle and surprising variations in our perceptions.

Love is a Mystery

Before concluding my exploration of Einaudi’s work it is important to acknowledge his contribution to film music and to contemporary TV and documentary film making. It is almost impossible to watch television without hearing some composition by Einaudi played in the background.

One of my favourites is “Love is a Mystery”. I recorded this lovely composition some time ago. Being a bit of a romantic, I find it both moving and beautiful. I offer you my version below.

“Love is a Mystery” was developed into the main theme for the ITV mini-series of Dr Zhivago (ITV 2002). I think this gorgeous piece of music is a very good place to end my exploration of this remarkable composer.

Ludovico Einaudi is without a doubt one of the most prominent representatives of neoclassicism. I rather suspect there will be many more wonderful compositions flowing from the pen of this graceful, clever and stylish artist.

I leave you with Einaudi’s own version of the theme from Dr Zhivago.

John McGuinness 2024