Barbican, LondonThe Italian composer’s musical language is pitifully narrow and he is a limited pianist. The audience appear to be mesmerised – but there’s nothing to listen to
The past few weeks have told us more than we want to know about the relentlessly acclamatory optimism of powerful people for whom detail is a mere inconvenience. Like our new PM, the Italian composer Ludovico Einaudi is a populist who has no problem persuading audiences to come out and listen. Tonight’s concert is the first of seven sell-out evenings at the Barbican devoted to his work. And yet his message proves stubbornly empty, unmemorable and humourless –
music patched together from cute melodic soundbites and occasional outbursts of bombast.
On paper, it looks audacious. Seven Days Walking is described as a “sprawling and ambitious new project” inspired by winter walks in the mountains near Einaudi’s Italian home. We are promised dramatic fresh perspectives on the same recurring material, which will “reveal new details each time”. This two-hour slab of music, played by Einaudi himself on piano, with Federico Mecozzi (violin) and Redi Hasa (cello) is, confusingly, described as both the “first instalment” and “excepts” in a not terribly helpful programme note – but the material feels so featherweight, and interchangeable between different sections, I’m not sure this matters.