Italian pianist makes sublime plea for Arctic as glaciers crumble
Sponsored by Greenpeace, concert aimed to persuade politicians to safeguard area
It might have been the smallest crowd Ludovico Einaudi ever played to, but the setting hardly could be more stunning.
This month, while floating on a small platform in the Arctic Ocean off the coast of Norway, the renowned Italian composer played a grand piano as pieces of a sprawling glacier crumbled nearby.
Einaudi performed an original composition “Elegy for the Arctic” that he had written for the occasion.
The performance was sponsored by Greenpeace, the global environmental activist group, as part of a campaign to persuade world leaders to safeguard the Arctic.
Scientists have warned that the Arctic has been thawing much faster than expected.
Those changes have potentially se- rious implications for the world’s climate, for wildlife and for individual economies.
“The Arctic Ocean is the least protected sea in the world, its high seas currently have no legal safeguards,” Greenpeace wrote in releasing the video of Einaudi’s performance. “As the ice cover decreases with rising temperatures, this unique area is losing its frozen shield, leaving it exposed to reckless exploitation, destructive fishing trawlers and risky oil drilling.”
This week in Spain, representatives from more than a dozen European governments are meeting to discuss ways to protect and manage the northeast Atlantic Ocean, including the Arctic.
The commission, which has existed since the 1970s, has acknowledged that despite the low population and isolation of the Arctic region, “human activities such as fishing and offshore petroleum production remain significant.”
Einaudi is slated to perform at Toronto’s Koerner Hall in October.