An Arctic glacier becomes pianist Ludovico Einaudi’s very own theatre in a new video produced by environmental charity Greenpeace.

The Italian musician is used to playing for crowds in Europe’s grand concert halls but his latest audience – the ice caps of the Wahlenbergbreen glacier in Norway’s Svalbard – offers a chilly reaction.

In the video, Einaudi performs his self-composed ‘Elegy for the Arctic’ on a floating platform supported by 300 triangular structures of wood. As he plays the piece, the glacier around him breaks apart.

‘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,’ says Einaudi.

The video coincides with this week’s OSPAR meeting in Tenerife – where countries will look to secure this part of the Arctic as protected waters and halt oil drilling and unsustainable fishing in the area.

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