Esteemed Italian pianist and composer Ludovico Einaudi has had an incredible career training and composing scores for trailers, films and his albums. Joining forces with Greenpeace, a collaboration was born to create awareness about the beauty and slow deterioration of the Arctic. Together, they created a stunning video that tells an emotional and chilling story.
Ludovico and Greenpeace take to the Wahlenbergbreen glacier in Svalbard, Norway. He is outfitted with a floating platform, decorated to be reminiscent of floating icebergs. It’s nothing but Ludovico and his gorgeous BB grand piano floating on this platform through the wreckage of melted iceberg chunks. Even though it’s a beautiful setting, it’s the remainder of what used to be there.
The video starts quietly with only background noise and birds, when suddenly a crack in the distance is heard, startling Ludovico enough for him to turn his head in the direction the sound came from. He returns to the front of the piano and commences to his piano piece. “Elegy for the Arctic” is Ludovico’s heartfelt goodbye to the Arctic as we know it, after all, the term elegy refers to a poem specifically written for the dead.
As he floats and plays, we can see monstrous chunks of ice crack and cascade into the water below with a resounding boom. His haunting and at times urgent-sounding piece is what a downward spiral would sound like in music form, and punctuated with the low sound of the ice falling in the background. One could not ask for a more chilling and devastating combination.
But not all hope is lost. As Ludovico is visibly brought to tears near the end, the actual last note of the song feels like it’s unfinished. Even though he is essentially playing a funeral song, there is still something that can be done – the story is not yet finished.
Click below to see Ludovico’s outstanding performance.
