Chief conductor Karina Canellakis will battle the elements with Thomas Larcher. On Sept. 25, 2021, she and pianist Paul Lewis will also climb the peaks of Brahms' masterful First Piano Concerto.

Battle with nature
As an Austrian raised in the Alps, Thomas Larcher is very familiar with the mountains. He finds inspiration and solace there, but at the same time is always aware of the danger that can lurk on a slope. When on March 9, 2019, the young British mountaineer Tom Ballard met his end on the flanks of the Nanga Parbat in the Himalayas, not far from the K2 where his mother had already perished, Larcher heard a symphony in the unequal struggle between man and nature.

'A line above the sky'
'A line above the sky' - it is the title of a perilous series of mountain climbs Ballard undertook in the Dolomites in 2015, and that is how Larcher named his Third Symphony. "For me, behind the phrase 'A line above the sky' is also the desire for the dream of an enlightened life, a life in the light," the composer writes in his notes, "a life that embraces the mountains, these silent giants that observe us and understandably have no understanding of our crazy actions. (...) I myself have spent the best hours of my life on and among the mountains. Their existence has inspired, enlightened and comforted me. (...) It is difficult to find an explanation for why some people seek such extreme experiences, take risks like Tom Ballard who climbed the Nanga Parbat in the middle of winter and found his death there. Personally, I have escaped death several times in the mountains. Such thoughts ran through my mind while composing this symphony. In this way, it has become a 'testimony of the intensity of life' - in the first movement; and a 'Trauermusik' in the second."

Tradition and innovation
Thomas Larcher is no longer an unknown figure in Dutch musical life. In corona time he was composer in residence in The Concertgebouw, and since 2008 he has also written works for the NTR Saturday Matinee. Anyone who was able to experience his Piano Concerto last Matinee season via radio or the Internet, or previously heard his Second Symphony 'Kenotaph' or Alle Tage, knows that Larcher never quite abandons tradition. A description like 'Trauermusik' already seems to refer to Romanticism, to his compatriot Mahler, and he does not shy away from 'pre-modern' genre titles like symphony, piano concerto or opera either. At the same time, he invariably elicits truly unheard-of timbres from the orchestra. "The traditional orchestra is in dire need of change," Larcher said of it. "It has to be open to instruments other than the usual ones, otherwise it will end up as a wonderfully embalmed mummy."
You can always go one step further. On Saturday, Sept. 25, enjoy the almost recklessly achieved vistas!

NTR Saturday Matinee September 25, 2021, 2:15 p.m.
Concertgebouw, Amsterdam
Radio Philharmonic Orchestra
Karina Canellakis conductor
Paul Lewis piano

LARCHER Third symphony 'A line above the sky' (commissioned work Concertgebouw Fonds for NTR Saturday Matinee and Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, Symphonieorchester Vorarlberg, Sveriges Radios Symfoniorkester, Filharmonie Brno, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and Orquesta Sinfónica y León - world premiere)
BRAHMS First Piano Concerto

Order your tickets here.

Larcher in the Matinee
01-03-2008 Nocturne - Insomnia (commissioned work Saturday Matinee - world premiere)
23-01-2010 Violin Concerto (commissioned Saturday Matinee, Radio-Symphonieorchester Wien, Deutsche Radio Philharmonie Saarbrücken Kaiserslautern - Dutch premiere)
11-02-2012 Böse Zellen (Dutch premiere)
18-01-2014 Larcher Double Concerto for violin, cello and orchestra (Dutch premiere)
11-04-2015 Alle Tage, symphony for baritone and orchestra (commissioned work NTR ZaterdagMatinee, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig and National Symphony Orchestra Washington - world premiere)
30-09-2017 Second symphony 'Kenotaph' (Dutch premiere)
22-05-2021 Piano Concerto (commissioned work Česká filharmonie, Wiener Konzerthaus, NTR ZaterdagMatinee, BBC Radio 3, DR Sinfoniorkestret, Berliner Philharmoniker and Bergen Filharmoniske Orkester - world premiere)
25-09-2021 Third symphony 'A line above the sky' (commissioned work Concertgebouw Fonds for NTR ZaterdagMatinee and Radio Filharmonisch Orkest, Symphonieorchester Vorarlberg, Sveriges Radios Symfoniorkester, Filharmonie Brno, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and Orquesta Sinfónica y León - world premiere)