Composer: Thomas Larcher (b.1963) 托马斯·拉切 (http://www.thomaslarcher.com/en/)
Ensemble: Rosamunde Quartett 罗莎蒙德四重奏
Genre: Classical, Chamber
Label: ECM
# ECM New Series
No.: ECM 1967 (https://www.ecmrecords.com/catal ... -rosamunde-quartett)
Release date: 05.09.2006
Thomas Larcher (born 16 September 1963 in Innsbruck) is an Austrian composer and pianist.
Background
Writing of Thomas Larcher’s ECM release Naunz in 2001, Hans-Klaus Jungheinrich observed that the Austrian composer’s musical textures “rely on the enormous expansion and compression of time, working with almost cinematic montage techniques, with cross-cuts, with rhythmic spans both long-arching and brief, with precisely calculated intensification and internal structuring. There is no question: Larcher’s music is clearly and securely shaped and radiates intellectual control”. Complexity and clarity are not opposites in Larcher’s sound-world as this new disc, with chamber music written between 1990 and 2004, evidences.
The programme, comprised of four world premiere recordings, is framed by two big string quartets, Ixxu and Cold Farmer, vividly performed by the Munich-based Rosamunde Quartet, whose New Series recordings have traversed an exceptionally wide range of musics (from Haydn to Saluzzi, from Webern to Mansurian, from Burian to Silvestrov). My Illness Is The Medicine I Need marks the ECM début of the young Amrican soprano Andrea Lauren Brown and a rare recorded appearance of Christoph Poppen as violinist, the first since his collaboration with the Hilliard Ensemble since the Bach album Morimur. The cellist, Thomas Demenga, Larcher’s longstanding musical comrade-in-arms also plays Mumien with the composer himself at the piano.
“I write for ‘classical’ musicians who like being challenged”, Larcher says. In his pieces, notions of virtuosity are pursued to the brink of obsession, raising the expressive energy another notch in degree and intensity. Andreas Reiner, the Rosamunde’s first violinist, speaks of “hair-raising difficulties” in the realisation of these works – “masterpieces of the contemporary quartet repertoire” – as well as the insights to be gained in playing them for a composer who is also “one of us” (as a very active concert pianist, Larcher fully understands the rigours of interpretation). “When Larcher rehearses with us, his pragmatic and, in view of the extreme inpidual and collective demands, understanding manner helps us a lot.” Yet even if the music calls for utmost precision and physical commitment from the performers, it is never impenetrable for the listener. These pieces are physical and direct, electrically charged, clearly articulated, transparent in sound, deeply emotional.
Politics and everyday culture serve as direct sources of inspiration for Larcher's music. (As was already apparent in the Naunz album, where Vier Seiten, for cello, reflected the deadly crash of the Formula-One driver Ayrton Senna and its extremely slow-motion replay in the media). My Illness is based on statements by mental patients, reproduced in Benetton’s magazine Colors. “I fished out the sayings that were less explicit, statements that any of us may have thought in one form or another”, Larcher explains. “I usually have a fairly hard time with lyric poetry. The more polished and flawless the poem, the less room remains for music. But here the words function like a magnet, pulling the music into alignment.”
“My roots lie in performance”, Larcher emphasises, “and in decades of imprinting through the music and formal ideas of the classics. My music is communicative: it challenges the attentive listener but is meant to be readily intelligible in concert. That is what forms the basis of the timing in these pieces, their dramatic structure and formal design. I want to build a novel and original edifice of maximum clarity using traditional building-blocks. I'm not interested in using shock techniques to flaunt the novelty of my architecture. I want to arrange and enhance the elements so as to produce new expressive values.”
Besides the legacy of tradition, Larcher's music has also absorbed a wide range of stimuli from contemporary music, especially from the United States, Eastern Europe and Russia. Such impulses are invariably integrated in unusual contexts, placed in exciting juxtaposition and driven to emotional extremes.
Larcher is an acclaimed performer who has also drawn praise for his illuminating programming (witness his Schubert and Schoenberg recital on ECM New Series 1667), however, recently, he has had to cut back on his solo activities to devote himself to a growing number of composing commitments.
Featured artists:
Rosamunde Quartett
Andreas Reiner Violin
Simon Fordham Violin
Helmut Nicolai Viola
Anja Lechner Violoncello
Andrea Lauren Brown Soprano
Christoph Poppen Violin
Thomas Demenga Violoncello
Thomas Larcher Piano
Tracklist:
Thomas Larcher - Ixxu (1998-2004)
1. flüchtig, nervös 01:12
2. sehr schnell, präzise 05:41
3. ruhig 06:39
Thomas Larcher - My illness is the medicine I need (2002)
4. My illness is the medicine I need 01:14
5. I think I'll stay here until I die 01:40
6. Eat and sleep 01:50
7. I like it when people ask me the time 02:59
8. I don't know why I am here 03:40
9. Once they give you an injection 03:03
Thomas Larcher - Mumien (2001/02)
10. tempo giusto 01:32
11. schneller 07:12
12. langsam 03:17
Thomas Larcher - Cold Farmer (1990)
13. mit Groove 03:40
14. ruhige Halbe 04:30
15. sehr schnell 03:39
16. ganz langsam 01:26
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发表于 2020-1-19 16:58:54
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