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October 14 , 2008
Thomas Larcher’s London success
Austrian composer and pianist Thomas Larcher (born 1963) was praised as “a musical talent of unbounded sensitivity and distinction bound for 21st-century glory” by The Times after his recent portrait concert with the London Sinfonietta conducted by Martyn Brabbins at Queen Elizabeth Hall. “It’s not unusual for Austrian composers to feed off the past’s gestures and tonality, but Larcher uses his heritage quite without irony, hurling the past into the future, rejuvenated, reinvented, in a wonderland of dizzying and extraordinary sounds”, wrote Geoff Brown.
Alongside compositions by Tōru Takemitsu the night’s programme comprised the premiere of Larcher’s song cycle “Nacht der Verlorenen” based on fragments by Ingeborg Bachmann – baritone Matthias Goerne lending his “tender, melancholy voice” (The Times) – and the Piano Concerto “Böse Zellen” (“Free Radicals”) with the composer playing the solo part. Alongside his Viola Concerto with Kim Kashkashian as soloist, the Piano Concerto will feature on a new ECM recording with the Munich Chamber Orchestra conducted by Dennis Russell Davies that is scheduled for release in 2009.
In the upcoming months Larcher has a busy schedule both as pianist and as composer. He will give the world premiere of Isabel Mundry’s Piano Concerto “Ich und Du” with the SWR Radio Symphony Orchestra under Pierre Boulez’ baton in Donaueschingen on October 17 and is currently writing new pieces for the Munich Chamber Orchestra (March 2009), Isabelle Faust and the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra (March 2009) and – scheduled for May 2010 – a new work for the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra.
Larcher’s ECM discography includes the chamber music albums “Ixxu” (2005) and “Naunz” (1999) and a piano recital with piano pieces by Schoenberg and Schubert (1998), and he can also be heard on albums with Heinz Holliger, Thomas Demenga and Michelle Makarski.
www.thomas-larcher.com
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