... as an Arctic glacier crumbles around him
Italian pianist premiered a new piece in Svalbard to publicise Greenpeace’s battle to save the Arctic.
image: http://assets8.classicfm.com/2016/25/einaudi-performs-on-iceberg-in-arctic-1466422462-article-0.png
Greenpeace has persuaded Italian composer and pianist Ludovico Einaudi to play on a specially built ‘iceberg’ within 100m of a crumbling glacier as part of their campaign to save the Arctic.
In the video, Einaudi is seen performing his minimalist music in the breathtakingly beautiful surroundings of Wahlenbergbreen glacier in Svalbard, Norway. As he plays one descending scale, huge chunks of ice calve off the glacier. To get to the spectacular location, Einaudicaught a ride with the Greenpeace ship Arctic Sunrise (you can see how the film was made in the video at the bottom of the page):
Einaudi premiered his new composition, Elegy for the Arctic , as governments gathered in Tenerife to consider a proposal to protect 10% of the Arctic Ocean.
According to Greenpeace, three countries - Norway, Denmark and Iceland - oppose the measure. The Arctic is becoming vulnerable to exploitation for fishing and oil drilling because the extent of sea ice covering the ocean has fallen to record lows in recent years.
