Portrait Thomas Larcher
Emotional and unique: six concerts explore the captivating music of the composer Thomas Larcher.
»Music of such urgency is rare in our time«, writes the music journalist Anselm Cybinski about the works of Thomas Larcher. The composer admits that he has an instinct for the emotional rapture of major and minor, for classical forms such as the sonata and solo concerto, for »remarkably original sounds«, as one critic said, and for unbounded experimentation. »I just want to compose as freely and naturally as possible«, he explains. »Where is beauty and emotion? Where are the works that concern the listener, that have something to do with their life?«.
Raised in the Tyrol, Larcher soaked up the sounds of Mozart, Bach and Schubert as an adolescent pianist, and was later fascinated by free spirits of jazz such as Ornette Coleman and Gil Evans. In his own work, the extremes are always positioned close together: furious runs, meditative chords and experimental playing techniques are designed to take the listener »to a different sphere«. A series of his most captivating works is now being performed in the Elbphilharmonie, from the premiere of his latest string quartet to the German premiere of his new work for large orchestra as part of »Elbphilharmonie Visions«. »The Living Mountain« perfectly exemplifies the importance of the singing voice in Larcher’s oeuvre – an attempt to »hear the entire universe of music in a bird’s call«.
