The latest album from popular classical composer Ludovico Einaudi is as a song cycle in thirteen tracks. The Summer Portraits is inspired by a series of striking oil paintings adorning an Italian villa Einaudi and his family rented last year. Einaudi discovered that the paintings were produced over many summers by a woman from Rome who owned the house for some years and painted new scenes every summer. “This album is dedicated to all our summers, all our beautiful moments.”

The oil paintings are a symbol of Einaudi’s own impressionistic approach to music: each stroke so carefully chosen; powerful moods created by something delicate. In a departure from the sonic palette of his recent solo piano works, a majority of the new songs are scored for chamber ensemble or full string orchestra (The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra Strings) with solo contributions from baroque violinist Théotime Langlois de Swarte, who impressed Einaudi with his take on Vivaldi concertos.

Einaudi has just announced a North American tour, which begins in Chicago in September.