Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Adult Beginners Forum Ludovico Einaudi

Wow. I'm so jealous. I'm very new to Einaudi's music. I would love to see him in concert. Seems unlikely that he would ever venture down my way though. I'll have to take a trip if he returns next year.

Just started learning my first Einaudi piece. I'm learning I giorni. I plan to get the "Best of" book and learn more though.

That would work better for me, too, as I am cutting it very close indeed with flight times; my plane is due in at 4:40 and then I have to get to the hotel and check in. If I miss my connection or if the flight's more than an hour or two delayed I'm hosed, but there weren't really any other options for me flight-wise.

I'd love to get together for a concert rehash. Maybe we could meet up in the line for autographs if Einaudi follows his usual routine of coming out after the show, and then go grab a drink or something. I've got a gruesomely early flight the next morning but I'll probably be too keyed up after the show to go straight to sleep anyway.

Is it just me, or does Einaudi bear an uncanny resemblance to Larry David from "Curb your enthusiasm"?

Einaudi:





David:

Just got this letter from my stepmother, who lives in Seattle, so when I saw Einaudi had a Seattle concert date I urged her and my dad to go see him, which they did. Here's her report on the show:

"We loved the concert. Your Dad's words... he is a serious and dignified performer. I thought he was also gentle, thoughtful and brilliant. When he finished playing he withdrew his hands from the keyboard as if he was unplugging himself. He then turned his head and smiled. The crowd would go wild with clapping. He played for 90 minutes which went by in a hurry. It was a solo concert. He played 10 plus compositions that lasted maybe 10 minutes each. He played new works first then I recognized three towards the end. He played one encore and the audience lusted for more but he waved gently and walked off stage. We didn't wait to see him after the concert cause your Dad has a serious get home syndrome and off we flew. There was about 300 plus fans in the audience. They all knew him and his works. At the end of one piece Einaudi was winding up with a crescendo and abruptly stopped. An audience member whooped with glee then the audience clapped wildly. I was surprised by the ending and thought at first that the sole whooper had accidently whooped.
We had a great time and really appreciate you sending us to hear Einaudi."

I'm guessing that the piece with a crescendo and abrupt stop was Divenire.

I love that description!!

I'm so hyped about the show!! My wife does not know too much about Ludovico Einaudi, hoping she becomes a fan.

My wife and I are going to Jalapeno Loco before the show. Not sure if we will have time afterwards for drinks.

I had a show at the theater where Einaudi performed earlier this week, and the stage manager mentioned him to me. I told him how he had become popular through KDFC. KDFC has generated a fair amount of popularity for another pianist composer, Wim Statius Muller, even though his recordings are out of print, so I am trying to get him to come for the series I tune for. He would fit into our series World Music.

San Fran's show was EPIC!

Great seats (couldn't see the keys though) but I did see the pedals and yep, he does use the SOFT one quite often also

I was so chuffed that he played some pieces from I giorni and also Una Mattina also. Since I have just finished learning I gironi I was VERY happy he played this, and also Nuvole Bianche!

Was a great personal concert. He wasn't there with the strings & co but it was great. Was nice to get a picture with my wife and him afterward also (still on the camera).

I love how humble he is and how much he "moves" the audience who watch/listen to him.

Enjoy ML -
- SC

Not Einaudi playing but as usual a great rendition..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UM93jXFgQvg

A.

SO....... (Monica, Anthony etc)....

How was the concert on Saturday?
- SC

Steve, I believe your descriptor of Epic is equally appropriate!!
It was the first time I have seen a composer/solo pianist perform live.
I was very curious as to how the dynamics would translate live. Can't wait to see him again!!!

My wife knew nothing about Ludovico Einaud going in. On the way home she told me she thought it was going to be boring. However, it ended up being the most beautiful piano music she ever heard, and she struggled to hold back tears several times during the performance.

(I'll eventually post a couple pics if any turned out)

OH, btw, I forgot to mention...

After several warnings, Anthony was escorted out of the theater for violating the "no flash photography" rule.
And Monica bullied an innocent couple out of their premium seats so she could see the keys!!

Of course I am joking

LOL you had me going there for a second. Yep, pretty much the same reaction Sheryl had after seeing him for the first time. I mean she'd heard only some of his music up to that point. I'll be keeping a watchful eye on here and the Einaudi Forums to see where he's playing next.

Glad you all had a great time!
Steve

What a wonderful concert! Einaudi played for about 90 minutes, in his usual style for live performances, wherein he plays a medley of 2 or 3 pieces with improvised bridges joining them together. He must tinker with the pieces he plays a lot, because he doesn't play them exactly as performed on the albums, and (as best as I can determine) his improvisations were different than the last time I heard him play in SF.

The highlights of the show for me were Nuvole Bianche, I due fiumi, and Divenire. For "I due fiumi," he played the beautiful coda that's on the La Scala live album and that Anthony and I have been trying to figure out how to play by ear. Except this time he made the coda even longer and more complicated with all sorts of fast triplet arpeggios at the end! It's gorgeous but I don't have a chance at trying to figure out the new stuff.

I was greatly intrigued by how he played "Divenire." He played right-hand chords at the beginning, instead of the single notes shown in the sheet music. I think I'm going to try that myself because it sounded a lot better. And he played it much, much slower and mellower than the tempo on the recorded version, and I'm *definitely* going to try that out, too, as that's my only chance for playing the piece, I think.

Einaudi himself was the same charming, humble, gentleman that I remembered from San Francisco. He walked out onto the stage to be met by enthusiastic applause and cheers from the audience of about 350 people, no doubt inspired by his dapper outfit of dark grey sports coat and retro throwback apparently newly fashionable plaid slacks. As is his habit, he stayed after to sign autographs and patiently pose for photographs. I'll post mine later when I get home. I snuck in line twice, and the second time I gathered the nerve to say more than a word or two to him; I thanked him for making his sheet music publicly available so that even an amateur could have the experience of playing such beautiful music. He nodded and said "you're welcome" and gave me a big thumbs up.

All in all, a wonderful time was had by all. There were a fair number of piano forumites there, including AnthonyB and Triryche. I thoroughly enjoyed getting to meet Anthony's parents, who were enjoying a nice birthday celebration for Anthony's dad. AWTPP, alas, came down with the flu that morning and had to miss the show.

But Triryche wasn't joking about me sneaking into a better seat. My ticketed seat was way over on the right hand side of the auditorium, where I couldn't even see his face, let alone hands. And as I noticed that it wasn't going to be a sell-out and that there were plenty of open seats on the more desirable left side, I went to the ushers and explained that I had flown all the way from Kentucky to see Einaudi play, and by golly I wanted to see his hands. The ushers were very understanding and said that as long as I waited until right before the show started, I could move to any vacant seat I wanted. I think I ended up with the best seat in the house, actually. People started coming down and filling in the other empty seats around me, and I kept asking guiltily, "Did I steal your seat?" but they all looked equally guilty and said "no, we're just moving here to see his hands!"

The only downside to the evening is that the venue itself kind of sucked. The chairs were old and would creak if people shifted much, and--even worse--there was some kind of loose duct in the the air conditioning vents in the ceiling that rattled continuously throughout the whole concert. It was not all that loud, but a prima donna kind of performer (which Einaudi is most definitely not) probably would've pitched a fit. I personally thought it was inexcusable for a performing arts center. On the plus side, the piano itself (a Steinway D that looked like it had been around the block a few times) sounded beautiful, and in the end, that's all that mattered.

I agree, and here I thought I was being too critical.

Did you guys do anything after the show?
I was a bit star struck after he signed my book, so I put it in my car right away. Then I loitered out front for a while.

Yeah, the noisy ventilation was quite annoying and shouldn't have been tolerated. That reminds me that I was planning to email the center and complain a bit about that. Knowing them they'd then send me some sort of useless tickets to some future show that would never be worth driving 6 hours to go see...

I'll have to post my thoughts a bit later but we did stop at the Starbucks that was across the street from the main entrance of the performing arts center for a bit. I also hear that Monica took a bit of a tour of Milwaukee on the way back to her hotel.

Glad to hear you guys had a blast and tisk tisk at moving seats (jk!). Actually when Sheryl and I saw Billy Joel & Elton John in Anaheim we ended up watching most of the show from the 3rd floor bridge in between the seating areas. We had paid for pretty decent seats but when a wondering at the intermission.

From there we discovered a brilliant section where we could see their hands etc and just enjoyed from there.

I wasn't able to see his hands this time around but I did get a good view of him, the piano, AND the pedals. I now know where I can try the pedal differently and also the soft pedal (which he was using!)


- SC

If by "tour" you mean stumbling around dark, deserted downtown Milwaukee streets looking futilely for either (a) a taxi or (b) Milwaukee resident who had both heard of the Pfister Hotel and could tell me how to get there, you are correct. Maybe I'd better spring for that iPhone with a GPS app after all...

Quick review for now:

Ludovico was great and I might have even liked this concert better than the first. But maybe I was simply too excited during the first show to appreciate it as much.

The venue wasn't all that special. Actually, the Vogel Hall has some sort of noisy ventilation system that greatly distracted me during the show.

Here's a quick rundown of the tracks that I recall being played during the show:

Snow Prelude 15
Tu Sei
Berlin Song
Indaco
Nightbook

I think we went on to Divenere pieces at this point and here is where I forgot the playing order too!

Uno
Divenere
Oltremare
Ascolta
Fly
Resta Con Me
Nuvole Bianche
Lady Jane
I Due Fiumi (As Monica mentioned this had the nice bit before the ending pretty much like on the La Scala concert recording but with even more stuff added in at the end.)

Encore:
I giorni

Exciting news on the Einaudi front: A while back Anthony alerted me to the fact that a new live album for Einaudi will be released soon. It's coming out on November 1, and it's called the "Royal Albert Hall concert" and was recorded last March. Here's the track listing:

CD 1:

01. The Planets
02. Lady Labyrinth
03. Nightbook
04. In Principio
05. Indaco
06. Bye Bye Mon Amour
07. The Crane Dance
08. The Tower

CD 2:

01. Berlin Song
02. Tu Sei
03. Melodia Africana I
04. I due Fiumi
05. In Un’Altra Vita
06. Stella Del Mattino
07. I Giorni
08. Primavera
09. Divenire
10. Nightbook
11. Eros
12. La Nascita Delle Cose Segrete

The most exciting thing is that the European version of the album includes Einaudi's first-ever DVD recording of the concert. But when you go to amazon.com, apparently all they're issuing is a one-CD version, audio only. And even that is downright expensive; they're listing it as an out of stock import with a price of $48. But if you go to amazon.co.uk and order it from the Brits, you get the 2 CD + 1 DVD version for only about $25 bucks, shipping to the states included. I'm guessing the DVD format won't be compatible with US video players, but you should be able to play it on a computer okay. (At least, I have played European formatted DVDs on my computer in the past, so I'm banking on it working this time.)

Yep looking to pick that up myself also
- SC