How Ludovico Einaudi Sparked My Love for Piano
Musicians love to hate him, but Ludovico helped launch my piano journey.
I originally wrote this post for the piano blog No Dead Guys, which I highly recommend if you’re into music by living composers.
My piano teacher, a young Brazilian dude, loves Tupac and Dr. Dre, but plays zero music by living composers. He’s a font of information about work from Bach to Prokofiev, but shudders at the name Ludovico Einaudi.
Poor Ludovico. The much-maligned Italian composer is a) hugely popular with listeners and b) disregarded (or straight-up detested) by many musicians. He seems to fall in the same category as Yiruma of The River Flows in You: What is this syrupy, simple nonsense?!
Well, I have a confession: as a pianist who started playing four years ago at 38 years old (learned-to-read-sheet-music started), I enjoy Ludovico. And Yiruma, Alexis Ffrench, Phillip Glass, or Yann Tiersen of Amelie fame.
Not just them: I listen to many other modern composers who still get up every day to compose music that would probably make Beethoven threaten them with his ear trumpet.
In fact, those minimalist, is-this-even-classical-music composers were who got me fired up on piano in the first place. Say what you will, but their music is approachable and easy to listen to. The doughnuts of classical music—simple and delicious.
Ok, fine, and a bit nauseating if it’s all you eat.
Think of my musical taste like that of someone who hated broccoli and asparagus as a petulant child and only wanted grilled cheese with the crusts cut off. In the same way our gustatory horizons expand as we age, my music playing and listening has broadened to encompass a wide range of composers. (Twelve-tone music à la Schoenberg remains my asparagus, however. Maybe someday!)
Ludovico and his modern composer contemporaries were my crustless entree into the world of Chopin, Liszt, Satie, Albeniz, Debussy, Bach, Brahms, Beethoven and other core repertoire. I’m completely head-over-heels for piano after four years thanks to ALL the composers I’ve listed so far, alive or ensconced in Leipzig or enshrined in Paris.
Throw in very-much-alive Brad Meldhau, Tanya Ekanayaka (amazing!), Michael Arbenz and other non-minimalist composers and it’s quite the delicious buffet of varied, brilliant piano music. My Ludovico listening has dropped precipitously as other artists usurped his fragile throne.
That’s today. At the start of my piano journey, I tried to learn simple Baroque pieces. Problem: I wanted to learn pieces that I enjoyed listening to! (And that my wife wouldn’t call Castle Music, chortle.) At that time, I’d rather have played scales ad nauseam than some clunky minuet written 400 years ago.
Instead, I listened to Ludovico and Yiruma, or maybe some video game music a friend sent me, even movie soundtracks. Slowly I expanded my scope, googling “best classical piano” or sampling a random Chopin nocturne that Spotify suggested. I’d add it to my ongoing playlist. Hey, who is this Debussy guy? (Turns out he’s my mom’s favorite!)
This just in—there’s some pretty damn good music from the past. Who knew?
Now my piano playlist has almost 500 pieces from all eras, Baroque to the latest compositions shared on blogs like No Dead Guys. I read books about long-dead composers and pianists; I even did a month where I DREW them as part of learning to do portraits. (“You know that’s very eccentric, right?” my wife accurately pointed out.)
Looking back, I think that without modern syrupy music, I might have abandoned piano. Lacking appreciation for the different voices or the nuances of counterpoint, Baroque would have squelched my initial flame and Chopin’s dissonance might have driven me away. Sayonara piano, back to mountain biking! Ciao, potential life-long love.
It doesn’t have to be that way. For instance, one of my favorite online pianist-teachers, the venerable and witty Seymour Bernstein, tells a story of being in a masterclass audience. The visiting pianist starts lamenting how everyyyyone wants to play Moonlight Sonata Mvt. 1 (boohoohoo). Bernstein raises his hand and comments (paraphrased), “Think about the first time YOU heard Beethoven’s most famous piece. What about the delight while learning it early in your piano journey? Would you steal that feeling from someone just because you’re sick of a piece?”
I’ve personally felt that delight with the Moonlight Sonata, Impromptu #3 by Schubert, the Adagio movement of Beethoven’s Pathetique movement, or the rippling highs of Debussy’s Clair de Lune. Oh, AND pieces by Yann Tiersen and Ludovico freaking Einaudi.
To all you Ludovico haters, especially teachers, let me just say this: even a picky child who only likes junk food will expand their horizons as they get older. A pianist, nurtured and urged to explore other composers, will do the same. Like my experience, it could turn into an infatuation with ALL genres and eras of music, not just white bread and cheese.
But you know what? It’s ok if people still eat grilled cheese sometimes. (Crustless, obviously.)
Let them enjoy it. Maybe even try a bite. Careful though—you might like it. Don’t worry, we won’t tell anyone.
P.S. Here are a couple more portraits from that 30-day challenge.
