by Ulrich Kutschera
On Thursday and Friday, October 1 and 2, 2026, the Italian pianist & composer Ludovico Einaudi (born 1955) played two solo performances at
Stern Auditorium-Carnegie Hall / New York, USA.
In this context, a pianist in NY with whom I am in close professional contact, sent me a nasty message: "Einaudi at Carnegie Hall? Unsophisticated-bland music performed at a place where world-famous classical pianists, like Maurizio Pollini, Daniel Barenboim etc. have played the piano sonatas of Ludwig van Beethoven! Upsetting for every lover of serious music!
I was surprised by this harsh negative statement of my colleague, who is a not-very-successful US-piano player with little international reputation. I asked him: "Why these hate-driven, jealous remarks about a popular European musician, whose work is categorized as Classical Music"? His response:"Ludovico Einaud's compositions consist of cheap, soul-less sequences of broken piano-chords, without melodic developments; you may call it minimalist New Age-, or Chill-Out-music. It has, not at all, the level of true "Classical Music"!
Here is my response to this typical "Einaudi-bashing". On Spotify, Einaudi has more followers than Beethoven (ca. 8.2 vs. 7.4 million), and his concerts are always sold-out. We should accept, without envy at his success, that Einaudi's Neoclassical piano tracks appeal to millions of music lovers, and recognize that not everybody is capable of - or willing to - dive into the world of Beethoven's sophisticated and complex classical compositions. Accordingly, the recent Instagram-posts by Enaudi-Fans on the Carnegie Hall- concert are mostly positive-enthusiastic!
Moreover, Ludovico Einaudi has inspired many other composers of his generation. A recent Piano-Album, entitled
"Peaceful Blue Transitions", was produced "in the Wake of Beethoven and Einaudi". I hope that this Neo-Romantic music will appeal to both Einaudi-Fans and the so-called "serious classical music-people", who should no longer criticize the compositions of the charismatic Italian pianist.
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