{"id":62673,"date":"2019-09-23T14:51:51","date_gmt":"2019-09-23T18:51:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/?p=62673"},"modified":"2019-09-23T15:27:46","modified_gmt":"2019-09-23T19:27:46","slug":"interview-ludovico-einaudi-seven-days-walking-cd-release","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2019\/09\/23\/interview-ludovico-einaudi-seven-days-walking-cd-release\/","title":{"rendered":"INTERVIEW | Ludovico Einaudi Talks About His Musical Influences And Latest Release ‘Seven Days Walking’"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u2018Most-streamed classical music artist ever\u2019 Ludovico Einaudi talks about his latest release, \u2018Seven Days Walking\u2019, and his musical influences in an exclusive interview.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\"Ludovico
Composer Ludovico Einaudi talks about his new release \u2018Seven Days Walking\u2019 (Photo : LudovicoEinaudi.com)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I<\/span>talian composer Ludovico Einaudi\u2019s latest multi-CD project,\u00a0S<\/em>even Days Walking<\/em>, began with a simple premise: walking in the mountains around his home.<\/p>\n

“I was in the mountains in Switzerland,\u201d he recalls.\u00a0Einaudi says he was taking some time to himself between projects, listening to a lot of music, and making sketches of the scenery he passed by every day on his long walks through the mountain paths.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe idea I had in the beginning was quite vague,\u201d he says. \u201cI wanted to create something that was like a circle of music [\u2026] without any stops.\u201d<\/p>\n

He liked the idea of exploring the random and irregular aspects of his daily journeys, spontaneous elements that have always informed his compositions. The meandering flow of his thoughts as he walked in the Swiss countryside was something he wanted to capture in music. \u201cSimilar to the irregularity we have when we are thinking,\u201d he explains. When he began to record the ideas he was working on, he looked to retain that freshness of approach. \u201cI didn\u2019t want to clean it completely; I wanted to leave it.\u201d<\/p>\n

His path was largely the same over an extended period of time, but each day, it would strike him differently, or he\u2019d notice something new, something changed. He began to record his musical responses every day to capture those spontaneous reactions.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter a few days, I took those recordings and started to listen to them,\u201d he says. He\u2019d notice slight variations in the musical themes, and then the thought struck him. \u201cWhy should I choose between them?\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Composer
Composer Ludovico Einaudi (Photo : Ray Tarantino)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

From a single piece, the concept evolved into the notion of creating several pieces revolving around his different responses to that same itinerary.\u00a0\u201cWhat I was trying to express musically was what I was experiencing every day in my walks.\u201d<\/p>\n

Seven Days<\/span>\u00a0Walking<\/span><\/em><\/i><\/a>\u00a0was launched with seven separate CDs, released one per month beginning March 15, 2019. The suite of variations is performed with Einaudi on piano, cellist Redi Hasa and violinist Federico Mecozzi.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s an ambitious project, and one that has captivated Einaudi\u2019s huge audience base. Interest in the series hasn’t waned over the several months of its staggered release. Day Six<\/a><\/span><\/em>,<\/i> released in August, rocketed straight up to No. 2 in the Classical FM Chart in the UK, just under Islands<\/em>, another Einaudi release, which recaptured No. 1.<\/p>\n

On tour to promote the new project, Einaudi played to seven consecutive sold-out houses at London’s Barbican in August, with audiences that skewed to a younger demographic than most classical music concerts. Many contemporary composers have collaborated with artists and music outside the genre, but no one else seems to have made the cross over to mainstream audiences, and mainstream popularity, as solidly as Einaudi. He was the first classical musician to play alongside pop superstars like Lady Gaga and Kendrick Lamar at the iTunes Festival in London in 2013. Previous albums have garnered spots on the pop music charts, including his 2015 Elements<\/em>, which entered the pop charts in the UK at No.12.<\/p>\n

In 2016, he shot to worldwide fame after a video of him playing his composition “Elegy for the Arctic” on an iceberg in the Arctic Ocean went viral. The unusual performance was staged in connection with Greenpeace.<\/p>\n