New work (German premiere)

Program notes

About the Work

The concert opens with a piece that, at the time of writing, has no announced title. The Berliner Philharmoniker list it simply as a new work by Thomas Larcher, commissioned jointly by the Berliner Philharmoniker Foundation, the Orchestre de Paris, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the Concertgebouw Orchestra, and these Berlin performances are its German premiere. The world premiere is announced for a few weeks earlier: the Orchestre de Paris and Klaus Mäkelä have a new work by Larcher, marked as a first performance, on their programme at the Philharmonie de Paris on 7 and 8 April 2027. Mäkelä conducts in both cities.

No description, scoring or duration had been published when this guide was written, so what follows is about the composer, not the piece.

Larcher lives in Schwaz in the Tyrolean Inn valley, at the foot of the mountains, and the orchestra’s portrait of him describes a composer who has to be out of doors, on foot or on his bicycle, whenever the sun shines, and who works in the evening, sorting through the sounds he has gathered. He describes himself as a “hunter and gatherer” who takes ideas from musicians, instrument makers and sound engineers, and he composes with pencil and paper, by trial and error, without a ground plan drawn up in advance.

He has no quarrel with tonality. People tell him, he says, that there is an interesting play with apparent tonality in his music. His answer: “No, I’m sorry, that is not a simulation. That is tonal music.” He is equally direct about his aims: “I completely discarded the imperative of disturbance that contemporary art is supposed to trigger. That’s not my criterion. I want to reach people, I want my music to be heard.”

He has a history with this orchestra. As a pianist he played chamber music with its members, and during a period as a fellow of the Wissenschaftskolleg in Berlin he often sat in on its rehearsals; the German premiere of his Piano Concerto also went to the Philharmoniker.

What to Listen For

With nothing yet published about the piece itself, the best guide is Larcher’s other orchestral music. His publisher describes a style that combines contemplative harmonies with extended playing techniques, experimental and responsive to tradition at once, and the Berlin portrait speaks of a clearly tonal language and a shimmering sound world often inspired by experiences of nature. Expect recognisable harmony and a clear sense of direction, coloured by sounds that orchestral instruments are not usually asked to make. Larcher says he wants each player to feel that their part is woven into the whole and could not simply be written differently, so it is worth listening to how individual voices emerge from the texture and return to it.