Performed by Honoka Masuyama (timpani) and Jonathan Reuning-Scherer (piano) at Honoka's DMA recital at The Hartt School on February 7, 2025.

Werner Thärichen, legendary timpanist of the Berlin Philharmonic, studied composition and conducting at the Hochschule für Musik in Berlin. He also learned the flute and piano and was a percussionist and timpanist with the orchestras of the Hamburg State Opera and the State Opera Unter den Linden in Berlin. Thärichen was known especially for his Concerto for Timpani and Orchestra, Op 34 (1954), which he performed as soloist or conducted at home and abroad. This concerto was the best known of his more than 70 works. It was written for his son Nicolai, to whom he also gave percussion lessons and who made a name for himself as a jazz pianist, composer, and arranger.