What I learnt from Ludovico Einaudi

Last week I went to The Hammersmith Apollo to see Ludovico Einaudi perform his new album Underwater. I hadn’t been to a concert since before the pandemic and had forgotten the thrill of live music. Recordings can never match the sensual and social experience of live performance. When listened to collectively,  music unmasks the soul – solitary emotions are suddenly shared – and it connects us to something greater than ourselves.

Underwater is Einaudi’s first solo piano album in two decades, becoming the fastest streamed classical music album in history. High minded critics turn their noses up, calling his music ‘elementary’. But, judging by the audience, he clearly resonates with a wide demographic. The crowd were entranced from beginning to end, there was not a fidget, a whisper or even a bored sigh (bar the repeated interruption of an unsilenced telephone). Images of sea-elements, waves and fish were projected onto a canvas – the experience was hypnotic.