Lachenmann composed the work for a concert for children at the Kölner Philharmonie, given by Trio Accanto which at the time included his wife Yukiko Sugawara as pianist.

[1] He comments further:The exotic inflections of the sadly cheerful Japanese folk and children's song which conjures up the connection of pure beauty and inevitable transitoriness in the symbol of the cherry blossoms, is embedded into the functional-harmonic practice of the European musical tradition.

Trio Accanto gave the first performance – under the title Berliner Kirschblüten – on 6 August 2008, at the NDR Rolf-Liebermann-Studio in Hamburg (during the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival).

[2] While Sakura mit Berliner Luft was programmed in Linz on 7 May 2009 as part of the Festival 4020, again by the Trio Accanto (and under the final title), this performance is thought not to have gone ahead.

[7] Sakura Variationen was played by Trio Accanto (at that time Marcus Weiss (saxophone), Yukiko Sugawara (piano), and Christian Dierstein (percussion)) on 16 August 2010 at the Rheingau Musik Festival, when the 80th birthday of Walter Fink was celebrated by chamber music of living composers, including Toshio Hosokawa, Volker David Kirchner, Wolfgang Rihm, and Jörg Widmann.