Ludovico Einaudi Makes a Splash

IN AN HISTORIC PARTNERSHIP with Greenpeace, Italian pianist–composer and Steinway Artist Ludovico Einaudi held a unique concert, part of a campaign titled “Save the Arctic.” Einaudi performed an original piece — Elegy for the Arctic — atop a floating platform off the coast of Svalbard, Norway. 

Both the northernmost grand piano concert ever held and the first time a piano has ever been played on a floating platform in the Arctic, Einaudi's performance was a serious production. Greenpeace shipped a piano from Steinway’s Hamburg factory to the location, and provided video and sound crews so that the event could be recorded and distributed — to the piece's benefit. As the pianist plays his brooding and minimalistic Elegy for the Arctic, icebergs crumble in the background, adding to the drama of the work and urgency to its message.

Einaudi and Greenpeace hope to raise awareness both about global warming and about the upcoming meeting of the OSPAR Commission, in which the organization overseeing the conservation of the North-East Atlantic will opt either to protect international Arctic waters or not. With “Save the Arctic,” both artist and organization urge OSPAR to take this opportunity, their voices supplemented by the upwards of eight million people around the world who have signed a petition in support of the Arctic’s protection.