Thomas Larcher

Thomas Larcher (born September 16, 1963 in Innsbruck ) is an Austrian composer and pianist .

Life

Thomas Larcher completed his training at the Vienna University of Music with Heinz Medjimorec and Elisabeth Leonskaja (piano) and with Erich Urbanner (composition). Already during his student days he became known as a pianist in the field of classical, primarily contemporary music. I.a. He played with conductors such as Claudio Abbado , Pierre Boulez , Dennis Russell Davies and Franz Welser-Möst and worked closely with composers such as Heinz Holliger , Olga Neuwirth and Isabel Mundry . His chamber music partners are Natalie Clein , Mark Padmore , Alban Gerhardt a . a. As the founder and director of the festivals “ Klangspuren ” (1994–2003) and “Musik im Riesen” (since 2004), he also successfully established himself as a program designer.

For several years now, Larcher has primarily devoted himself to composition and is now considered one of the most important composers of new classical music in Austria. His early works (“Naunz”, “Cold Farmer”, “Kraken”, etc.) are primarily characterized by the examination of the piano and chamber music ensembles. In recent years his oeuvre includes chamber music (2nd and 3rd string quartet, "My Illness Is the Medicine I Need", "Splinters" for violoncello and piano, "Bohemia lies by the sea - Enigma" for baritone, clarinet, violin, Cello and piano) increasingly also music for orchestral and ensemble line-ups as well as for voice or solo instruments with orchestral accompaniment ("Böse cells", "The Night of the Lost", "Red and Green", "Concerto for Violin and Orchestra", "Nocturne - Insomnia" , "How the euro came to Bern and how it disappeared again" and others). Larcher writes numerous of his compositions, including commissioned works for the Lucerne Festival , the Southbank Center London, the Wigmore Hall London, the Zaterdagsmatineen Amsterdam and the BBC for internationally renowned soloists and ensembles such as the London Sinfonietta, the Artemis Quartet, Heinrich Schiff , Matthias Goerne , Till Fellner , the RSO Vienna, the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra , Mark Padmore, Viktoria Mullova , Matthew Barley . For his “Concerto for Violin, Violoncello and Orchestra”, which premiered at the BBC Proms in 2011, he received the British Composer Award in the International Award category in 2012.

Awards

• 1986 Art Prize of the City of Innsbruck 3rd Prize for Instrumental Music
• 1992 Art Prize of the City of Innsbruck 1st Prize for Instrumental Music
• 1998 Art Prize of the City of Innsbruck, 2nd Prize for Instrumental Music
• 1998 Emil Berlanda Prize
• Choc de la musique
• German Record Critics' Prize , best list 4/2006
• Editor's Choice ( Gramophone )
• 2012 British Composer Award, International Award
• 2014–2015 Stoeger Prize
• 2015 Austrian Art Prize
• 2018 Ernst Krenek Prize
• 2018 Prix de Composition Musicale of the Fondation Prince Pierre de Monaco for Symphony No. 2 "cenotaph"
• 2019: Grand Austrian State Prize

Works

Opera

• Das Jagdgewehr - world premiere at the Bregenz Festival 2018 , libretto by Friederike Gösweiner , based on Das Jagdgewehr (1949) by Yasushi Inoue

Orchestral works

• Red and Green for large orchestra (2010)
• Symphony No. 2 "Cenotaph" (2015-16)

Orchestral works with solo instrument / solo part

• Still for viola and chamber orchestra (2002)
• Hier, heute for violoncello, orchestra and tape CD (2005)
• Today for soprano and orchestra (2005/06)
• Böse cells for piano and orchestra (2006 / rev. 2007)
• Concerto for violin and orchestra (2008/2009)
• Concerto for violin, violoncello and orchestra (2011)
• A Padmore Cycle for tenor and orchestra (2010-2011; 2014, expanded version of A Padmore Cycle for tenor and piano)
• Alle Tage symphony for baritone and orchestra (2010-2015)
• Ouroboros for violoncello and orchestra (2015)

Ensemble works

• Nocturne - Insomnia for Ensemble (2008)
• How the euro came to Bern and how it disappeared again for Ensemble (2012)

Ensemble works with solo instrument / solo part

• Night of the Lost for baritone and ensemble (2008)
• My Illness Is the Medicine I Need for soprano and ensemble (2002/13, expanded version of My Illness Is the Medicine I Need for soprano, violin, cello and piano)

Vocal works

• The game is over for 24-part choir (2012)

String quartets

• Cold Farmer , 1st string quartet (1990)
• IXXU , 2nd string quartet (1998-2004)
• Madhares , 3rd string quartet (2006/07)
• Liquid Dreams , 4th string quartet (2015)

Chamber music for other groups

• Kraken for violin, violoncello and piano (1994-97)
• Mummies for violoncello and piano (2001)
• Uchafu for trumpet and piano (2003)
• Fibers for clarinet, violoncello and piano (2006)
• Splinters for violoncello and piano (2012)
• Duo for violin and violoncello (2012)

Chamber music with voice

• My Illness Is the Medicine I Need for soprano, violin, cello and piano (2002)
• Bohemia lies by the sea for baritone, clarinet, violin, violoncello and piano (2008)
• A Padmore Cycle for tenor and piano (2010-2011)
• Lyrical Lights for tenor and clarinet (2013)

Works for piano solo

• Piano piece 1986
• Naunz for piano (1989)
• Noodivihik for piano (1992)
• Antennen-Requiem for H. (1999)
• Smart Dust for piano (2005)
• What Becomes / Was wird for piano (2009)
• Poems , 12 pieces for pianists and other children (2010)
• Innerberger Bauerntanz for piano (2012)

Works for solo cello

• Four pages for violoncello (1997)
• Sonata for violoncello (2007)

Discography (selection)

CDs with music by Thomas Larcher

• Naunz (ECM, 2001)
• IXXU (Thomas Larcher with the Rosamunde Quartet ) (ECM, 2006)
• Madhares (ECM, 2010)
• What Becomes (harmonia mundi, 2014)

Thomas Larcher as an interpreter

• Arnold Schönberg, Franz Schubert: Piano Pieces (ECM, 1999)
• Hanns Eisler: Ernste Gesänge - Lieder with piano (Thomas Larcher with Matthias Goerne , Ensemble Resonanz) (harmonia mundi, 2013)

Web links

• Media from and about Thomas Larcher in the catalog of the German National Library
• Homepage of Thomas Larcher
• Thomas Larcher at ECM Records
• Thomas Larcher at Schott Music
• Thomas Larcher with his agent Cathy Nelson

Individual evidence

1. ^ ^{A b} Thomas Larcher - World premieres: "All days". Leipzig, November 26, 2015. (No longer available online.) Ophelias-pr.com, October 13, 2015, archived from the original on January 1, 2017 ; accessed on January 1, 2017 . 
2. ↑ derStandard.at - Austrian art prizes awarded . Article from January 28, 2016, accessed on January 29, 2016.
3. ↑ orf.at: Ernst Krenek Prize for composer Larcher . Article dated August 3, 2018, accessed August 3, 2018.
4. ↑ Le Site: Symphony n ° 2 Kenotaph - Thomas LARCHER | Prince Pierre Foundation. Retrieved October 30, 2018 (French). 
5. ↑ World premiere of Thomas Larcher's first opera “Das Jagdgewehr” at the Bregenz Festival, August 15, 2018 . Article on the openPR portal from July 2, 2018, accessed on July 3, 2018.
6. ^ Bregenz Festival: The hunting rifle . Retrieved August 16, 2018.