Primavera

This is the most orchestrally conceived of these four pieces, with strings taking a much more active role rather than functioning purely as accompaniment. The piece builds in waves, the piano and strings entering into genuine dialogue rather than the piano simply carrying the melody while strings provide atmosphere. The title refers to spring, and there is something accurate in that — a quality of emergence, of energy that is organized rather than explosive, that is moving toward something without quite arriving. The tempo has more forward momentum than much of Einaudi's work, which gives it a different emotional valence — less contemplative, more kinetic, still lyrical but with an undertow of urgency. The harmonic language in the middle section becomes briefly more complex and unresolved before returning to the clarity of the opening material, and that moment of complexity functions like a shadow crossing the landscape before the light returns. It is music that works well in transition — not for sitting still but for movement, for walking somewhere with a sense of purpose, for the particular feeling of a problem that is resolving itself. The combination of the Italian pastoral tradition Einaudi works within and his contemporary minimalist sensibility gives this piece a sense of timelessness that is one of his most consistent achievements.