Work of the Week – Thomas Larcher: returning into darknes

By Christopher Peter
30 Mar 2025

Austrian composer Thomas Larcher sits in a dimly lit room on a chair, wearing a dark suit and gazing thoughtfully to the side.

A premiere at the New York Philharmonic: On 3 April 2025, Thomas Larcher’s new cello concerto returning into darkness will receive its world premiere at Lincoln Center, performed by the New York Philharmonic under the direction of Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider. The solo part will be played by Alisa Weilerstein, to whom the piece is dedicated. The work was commissioned jointly by the New York Philharmonic for the Serge Koussevitzky Music Foundation in the Library of Congress in memory of Serge and Natalie Koussevitzky, the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, the Tonkünstler Orchester Niederösterreich, and the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra.

A collaboration shaped by trust and emotion

The new concerto was initiated and shaped in close collaboration with Alisa Weilerstein. Larcher has repeatedly praised her intense and expressive playing, which was a central source of inspiration. His music often moves between extreme emotions and explores the limits of what is expressible. In returning into darkness, this emotional range is framed by two fragile gestures: a glissando that rises out of silence, and another that disappears back into it.

Between breathlessness and fragile beauty

Between these two boundaries lies a kind of musical life journey. “Growing, developing ways of speaking, losing friends, losing love, finding oneself in complete unrest, in exhaustion, trapped in language, losing language, unable to breathe, seeing beauty behind a glass wall that cannot be broken, searching for light, breaking into pieces, eventually vanishing and leaving behind some dust ...” is how Larcher himself describes the dramaturgy of the piece. Even without a traditional narrative, this music tells a profound, poetic story about our human condition.

A voice of contemporary music with a clear message

Thomas Larcher has established himself as one of the most important Austrian composers of our time. His works are widely performed and have received numerous awards. returning into darkness is more than a new addition to the cello repertoire – it is a work that touches on existential themes and resonates long after the final note has faded.