Thomas Larcher’s sound world is both original and captivating in its fusion of contemplative harmonies with innovative performance techniques.

Written for and performed by tenor Mark Padmore, A Padmore Cycle features the composer at the keyboard. Works for solo piano performed by Tamara Stefanovich round out this programme of first recordings.

Born 1963 in Innsbruck, composer Thomas Larcher studied piano and composition in Vienna. He first gained renown primarily as a pianist, performing with major orchestras and prominent conductors such as Claudio Abbado, Pierre Boulez and Franz Welser Möst. In 1998, he began to define himself more clearly as a composer. Since then he has composed works for the San Francisco Orchestra, the BBC Symphony Orchestra, London Sinfonietta, the Belcea Quartet, and for Leif Ove Andsnes, Matthias Goerne, Mark Padmore and Viktoria Mullova and Matthew Barley.

He has recorded five CDs with ECM, most recently 'Madhares' with Kim Kashkashian, Till Fellner and Dennis Russell Davies. Thomas Larcher has won numerous distinctions, including the Choc de la Musique and the British Composer Award (International category) 2012.

"Leif Ove Andsnes, who had initially inspired me to write What Becomes, set conditions for me in composing it. His requirement was that the piece must fit into a recital program that pianists would consider “normal” (although, in truth, such “piano recitals” are anything but “normal”; most are little more than geriatric museum tours by candlelight)... In Mark Padmore I found a companion willing to accompany me into remote musical territory, someone with the courage and openness to hold back his voice at many stages so that it would sound brittle and fragile as well as very exposed, yet all the while his voice remained extremely precise and present. Only that enabled me to draw a musical arc through the disparate texts." - Thomas Larcher