In a stunning visual reminder of what’s at stake as the earth warms, an acclaimed Italian composer and pianist delivered the performance of a lifetime — playing a baby grand on a small floating platform as a glacier crumbled around him.
Ludovico Einaudi performed “Elegy for the Arctic,” a piece he wrote just for the occasion, at the Wahlenbergbreen glacier in Svalbard, Norway.
“Being here has been a great experience. I could see the purity and fragility of this area with my own eyes and interpret a song I wrote to be played upon the best stage in the world,” Einaudi said in a news release from Greenpeace. “It is important that we understand the importance of the Arctic, stop the process of destruction and protect it.”
Greenpeace had the piano shipped from Germany to Norway, where it traveled on the Arctic Sunrise, one of the organization’s ships, to the glacier.
“The timing of Einaudi’s performance is not by chance,” Greenpeace wrote in blog post. “This week, delegates at the OSPAR Commission meeting in Tenerife, Spain, have an opportunity to take an important step in protecting the Arctic. The proposal before them would safeguard 10% of the Arctic ocean, an area roughly the size of the UK.”
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