Live Review: Ludovico Einaudi

Tonight, the fundamental forces of nature through the mechanisms of a maestro are explored in a sensory feast. Ludovico Einaudi's creative divinity is unfolded before us navigating the terrain of earth, wind and fire striking an unnerving correlation between the very elements of light, sight and sound engulfing QPAC's auditorium.

The most streamed artist of his genre, whose latest album out-shifted Taylor Swift's, Einaudi is a rock star among classical pianists. His latest, the international best-selling Elements, sonically quantifies the likes of nature, the periodic table, Euclidean geometry and Kandinsky's writing. This evening's production is mapped out through a journey of calculated execution — graceful in the route of its portrayal.

Flanked by his travelling band, Einaudi sits with his back to his audience at the piano, charting every flourish and reining in every crescendo. Opening on Night, he brings to light his bounding influences as it envelops over an arcing spectrum from passionate embrace to anxiety and disillusion before a backdrop projection of visual stimuli trigger as much the range of emotion as the music. Dressed in black, the musicians fall into the mechanics of Einaudi's execution, somehow peacefully brokering both a duality and harmony between percussion and strings, utilising conventional synthesisers, bass and electric guitars, as well classic and electric violins and cellos (Whirling Winds), each manipulated to astonishing effect (wiping down its neck with a cloth for a dull swoosh for Fairytale). Even the common hand saw is repurposed against the bow for the willowing echo of Logos (used on the official trailer for the 2016 film Nocturnal Animals featuring Jake Gyllenhaal).

The audience seems caught in transient bliss midway through as Einaudi's sparkling piano solo cascades into a free flow over the base of Nuvole Bianche lasting over 10 minutes. A vibraphone and an ocean harp accompany a metal plate struck as it's dunked into a tank of water to convey the despair in the languished depths of the ocean bed, rounding off the Elements experience. With a resounding ovation and final bow, Einaudi is brought back in QPAC's steadfast refusal to disconnect from this tryst. Before cutting heart strings, his encore blesses once more an evening embraced in the company of one of the greatest musicians of our time.