The legacy of great symphonies is a burden to some composers who search for new forms of music that offer avenues for exploration. Others regard it as a challenge to renew the old forms for today’s audiences.
In his recent music, Thomas Larcher has joined group two. Now 58, Larcher started out writing mostly for piano and it is only in the past decade that he has been fully getting to grips with a large-scale orchestra.
He is now the proud composer of three symphonies. Symphony No 2 came unusually as a commission from a bank, when the National Bank of Austria wanted to mark its bicentenary in 2016. This is a real symphony, forcefully argued, and the title, “Kenotaph”, commemorates the deaths of refugees crossing the Mediterranean.
From the opening it explodes into life and the symphonic drive rarely lets up. The music is like a coiled wire, so intense in compression that it feels electric to the touch. Larcher says the symphony “is about different forms of energy: bundled, scattered, smooth, kinetic or furious”. The closest classical precedent has to be Beethoven’s wildfire Symphony No 7.
This disc is an ideal introduction to Larcher’s highly strung and gripping musical world. The companion work on the disc is the extremely dark orchestral song cycle Die Nacht der Verlorenen, beautifully sung by Andrè Schuen, and the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra under Hannu Lintu is on top form.
★★★★☆
‘Thomas Larcher: Symphony No 2 “Kenotaph”’ is released by Ondine
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