Ludovico Einaudi unveils his new album ‘The Summer Portraits’

Groundbreaking composer and pianist Ludovico Einaudi, today announces his new album. ‘The Summer Portraits’ will be released on Decca on 31st January 2025 – celebrating 20 years with the world's No.1 classical music label. Today we will see the video of ‘Rose Bay’, the first single and opening track to ‘The Summer Portraits’, featuring footage of Einaudi’s childhood holidays.



‘The Summer Portraits’, Einaudi’s 17th studio album, is a song cycle in 13 tracks. Last year, Einaudi took a villa on a Mediterranean island and found the house to be decorated with 30 or 40 beautiful oil paintings clearly made by the same hand. Upon investigation, he discovered the story of a woman who owned the house and spent every summer there with her family. She used to create new paintings every summer and leave them in the house. “I started to think of my summers, the time where my life was strictly connected with all my senses, where the days felt like months and months like years, and I was free from morning to night, and every day was a new discovery of life, and nature was a fundamental part of it. We were nature” (Ludovico Einaudi)

”I thought that everyone has their own version of the summer portraits," Einaudi says. “A beautiful season connected with the best moments of our lives. So I started to make my own paintings with music. This album is dedicated to all our endless summers memories, all our beautiful moments.”

Single Rose Bay takes its name from the suburb of Sydney where Einaudi's grandfather, Wando Aldrovandi, emigrated in Australia in the 1930s. A top conductor who performed in front of Puccini, he refused to play for Italy's fascist government and left in protest – but his departure, when Einaudi's mother was just 12, left a hole at the centre of the family.

Aldrovandi wrote letters to his children, sent coats and shoes in the winter, but didn’t see them again. "I grew up with the image of this person that I never saw," Einaudi says. "My mother missed her father all her life. Music became a place where she could connect to him". Last year, before a gig at the Sydney Opera House (during a sold-out residency at the prestigious venue), Ludovico composed the piece spontaneously. Strings breathe over a chord that rise and fall repeatedly – a musical version of sun sparkling on water.

Part of the album was recorded at Abbey Road, with baroque violin contributions from Théotime Langlois de Swarte and orchestral parts performed by the strings of The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Robert Ames. The musicians with whom he has cultivated a lasting collaboration over many years—Federico Mecozzi on violin and viola, Redi Hasa on cello, and multi-instrumentalist Francesco Arcuri—recorded on almost all the tracks of the album including Rose Bay where you can also hear some subtle electronic elements. However, many songs better suited the intimacy of Einaudi's home studio in the countryside far better, where the whole experience was more personal, capturing the essence of ‘The Summer Portraits’.

Einaudi shows sell out within a couple of hours; last year witnessed Einaudi's triumphant return to the UK, captivating arena audiences in Cardiff, Leeds, Birmingham and Liverpool. Winter 2024 sees him play two nights at the London Palladium (11th & 12th November). This is followed by five consecutive nights at the Royal Albert Hall in summer 2025, the longest continuous headline run ever by a pianist at the historic London venue. The record-breaking run of dates (totalling over 26,000 people) takes place from 30th June to 4th July. Ticket info here.