European American Music Distributors Company is a member of the Schott Music Group

ECM Releases "The Living Mountain" Featuring World Premiere Recordings of Works by Thomas Larcher

Oct. 18, 2023

ECM has released "The Living Mountain,"a new album featuring the world premiere recordings of three works by Thomas Larcher, including the The Living Mountain, Ouroboros, and Unerzählt. Stream samples and purchase the disc here.

Thomas Larcher describes The Living Mountain, for soprano and ensemble:

"Mountains have always played an enormous role in my life, as an active mountaineer as well as a composer. At one point, I found a wide open, empty space for my soul to roam around … at other times climbing could be a challenge, I could experience extreme situations and dangers. What I never had experienced, though, was such a thorough and unpretentious look at the mountains as author Nan Shepherd or photographer Awoiska van der Molen have shown me. In Shepherd’s book it is not about mystifying the mountains or ‘testing oneself’. It is about discovering their beauty in one specific sound, in one look. It is about hearing the whole universe of music in one cry of a bird. And it is about hearing, feeling and experiencing yourself.


The Living Mountain - IV. In September dawns I hardly breathe/Thomas Larcher/
Sarah Aristidou, soprano/Aaron Pilsan, piano/Luka Juhart, accordionist/
Munich Chamber Orchestra/Clemens Schuldt, conductor)

The spirit of chamber music is at the heart of Thomas Larcher’s cello concerto, Ouroboros. Written to be played with or without a conductor, the rhythmically complex textures require the orchestra to listen and play as a much smaller ensemble. The soloist is an initiator of processes more than a virtuosic centerpiece. The work is constructed in three movements, the second of which is an extended cadenza for the solo cello and piano.


Ouroboros - II. Allegro infuriato/Thomas Larcher/Alisa Weilerstein, cello/Aaron Pilsan, piano/Munich Chamber Orchestra/Clemens Schuldt, conductor

Unerzählt is a gripping 13-movement work for baritone and piano, set to a posthumously-published set of "miniatures" by W.G. Sebald.

To learn more about Thomas Larcher, visit schott-music.com.

Thomas Larcher
The Living Mountain (2019-20)
for soprano and ensemble
fl(pic)-2perc(timp, vib, crot, tub bells, steel pans, cowbell, cym, xyl, mar, b.d., tenor drum, wdbl, rainstick, lightweight paper, thundersheet-acc.pno(prepared)-str(2.2.2.2.1)
15'

Ouroboros (2015)
for violoncello and chamber orchestra
perc(vib, crots, mar, Chinese cym, lg tam-t, timp, tenor drum, lg b.d., Indian drum, wind machine, biscuit tin, oil barrel)-pno(Steinway model D, prepared)-str(6.5.4.3.2)
20'

Unerzählt (2019-20)
for baritone and piano
text (Ger)by W.G. Sebald

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