Ludovico Einaudi is something of a local celebrity near where I live in Emilia Romagna, Italy. Since 2005, the Turin born pianist has curated a music festival at Verucchio just outside Rimini. Despite the fact that this is a sleepy hillside town he has managed to persuade prestigious artists from around the globe to perform there, ranging from Tinariwen and Toumani Diabatë to Randy Newman and Mercury Rev.
As an artist in his own right, Einaudi draws from a similarly eclectic background yet takes relatively conventional ideas from these sources. At heart he is a populist and his music is designed to be restful and meditative rather than challenging.
The largely restrained mood of his compositions is reminiscent of those new age tapes tailor-made to relieve stress and create a calming sense of balance. There is a stillness to Einaudi's compositions that all too often acts more as a sedative than a stimulant.
His highly cinematic, ambient music is dominated by simple, even simplistic, structures. He is seemingly content to write pieces that glide along tastefully yet inconspicuously in the background.
His music has been widely used in TV and movie soundtracks. Most recently his work can be heard on Shane Meadows' This Is England, the Channel 4 drama Any Human Heart and Casey Affleck's spoof documentary I'm Still Here.
The minimalistic and repetitive quality of his work means that he is often compared with composers like Philip Glass or Michael Nyman. Of the two, he is most like Nyman yet actually these comparisons are misleading since Einaudi is far less interested in experimenting with sound than those artists.
His latest release comes with a plain red cover and handsome gatefold sleeve containing two CDs and the first ever DVD release of an Einaudi show. The track listing and sequencing for the audio and visual discs is identical.
The concert film is a straight record of the final show of his band's successful tour of Europe and the United States shot at a packed Royal Albert Hall in March 2010. The stage's muted lighting is in perfect harmony with the subdued nature of the performance. The curiously prolonged prayer-like bows of the musicians add to the sense of heightened formality.
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Einaudi comes across as a quiet, reserved character and speaks only briefly in imperfect English ("I didn't see you were so many"). The most animated moment comes when at one point the audience applauds too soon and Einaudi gives a benign, forgiving smile.
Disc I has ten pieces performed by Einaudi and his six-piece band which includes To Rococo Rot's Robert Lippok on live electronics. Lippok's subtle but highly effective contribution adds a welcome variant to the piano and string arrangements. His sure touch is most evident on the album's best track - The Tower - where his swirling effects give the tune a kind of radiant afterglow. This tune builds slowly to a stirring climax and concludes the first disc on a high note. Other highlights are Lady Labyrinth and Nightbook; the latter is reprised on the second disc.
Disc II, and the second half of the show, has twelve tracks and opens with two very slow solo pieces (Berlin Song and Tu Sei). To wake us from piano dreamland Einaudi is thereafter joined by a fifteen piece string Orchestra from Verona, I Virtuosi Italiano, which consists of three viola players, eight violinists, three cellists and one double bass player.
Throughout both parts of the concert the playing cannot be faulted and the music is soothingly melodic. So, I ask myself, why does it leave me so unmoved?
Ultimately, I think the reason is that Einaudi is so concerned to maintain a level of tranquillity and harmony that it is hard to feel emotionally engaged.
While I can recognise Einaudi's compositional prowess and admire the skill of the musicians he has assembled for this performance, the very flawlessness of the pieces only serves to emphasise the lack of passion.
Ludovico Einaudi's website
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