Thomas Larcher is on the vanguard of contemporary Austrian composition. He emerged first as an excellent pianist, with a particular flare for modern music, but has become renowned for his compelling, virtuosic, emotional, and varied compositional output. The recording I've chosen for this month's CCM (a gift from a friend), includes two of his string quartets (String Quartet #1, called "Cold Farmer;" and String Quartet #2, called "Ixxu"), a work for cello and piano ("Mumien"), and the work I've chosen for the clip, an intoxicating piece which reminds me, to some degree, frankly, of some of the works in my own output¹: "My Illness is the Medicine I Need" for soprano, cello, and piano.

The six movements draw their text from the utterances of real patients from psychiatric hospitals from around the world. Larcher notes that his source was from a "photo-reportage" from an issue of Benetton's magazine, "Colors." The text itself is compelling enough, each one pregnant with food for thought: how are the mentally ill treated? how do they view their circumstances in the ward? in life? are all the thoughts alien to those on the outside? are any of them? That Larcher's treatment of the text is so delicate (even when full of fire), and so full of subtlety and compassion, makes the work a treat to hear.

For this month's clip, I give you the entire second movement, "I think I'll stay here until I die, I'm tired of life. I don't like freedom. The world frightens me."

¹In particular, my "Le Lâcher Prise" and its companion work, "Mare," come to mind.