Late 20th Century, Contemporary: Major Composers

[MN Dave]

1951 - 2010

Who are they?

And I know you could just list zillions but let's keep this manageable and go with your personal top ten. I'm asking this because I want to expand my listening but don't want to be led down any goofy avant garde alleyways on my way to modern nirvana.

Thanks, my friends.

[Oh, and definitely recommend recordings if you feel strongly about them.]

[Archaic Torso of Apollo]

First, I'm gonna rule out composer favorites who survived briefly into the mentioned period but not very long (e.g. Martinu, Prokofiev, Varese).

A personal Top 10 would right now look something like this:

Shostakovich
Ligeti
Lutoslawski
Schnittke
Messiaen
Carter
Xenakis
Simpson
Arnold
Adams

[MN Dave]

First, I'm gonna rule out composer favorites who survived briefly into the mentioned period but not very long (e.g. Martinu, Prokofiev, Varese).

Yes, I should have mentioned that. Thanks.

[karlhenning]

Just informationally:  my list will not include composers who are older in that period, and who therefore have the bulk of their significant work earlier.  For brevity, I include only one recommended work per composer.

Messiaen, Et exspecto resurrectionem mortuorum (either of the Boulez recordings)
Boulez, Rituel in memoriam Bruno Maderna (possibly his most general-listener-friendly work)
Cage, Concerto for Prepared Piano and Chamber Orchestra (in the recording conducted by Dennis Russell Davies)
Feldman, Why Patterns? (I've got the California EAR unit recording)
Wuorinen, Third Piano Concerto (played by Garrick Ohlsson)
Carter, Cello Sonata (here again, possibly the composer's most general-listener-friendly work)
Louis Andriessen, Hoketus (good clean fun)
Pärt, Fratres (the vn/pf version, especially that on the ECM disc played by Gidon Kremer & Keith Jarrett)
John Tavener, The Protecting Veil (I've got Steven Isserlis with Rozhdestvensky and the LSO)
Magnus Lindberg, Clarinet Concerto

[karlhenning]

Just informationally:  my list will not include composers who are older in that period, and who therefore have the bulk of their significant work earlier.

I suppose, then, I really ought to have included Britten.  But, I am pleased that the list should really be greater than 10 . . . .

[Luke]

I'm going to say Tippett, because otherwise no one else will - he's the forgotten great 20th century composer round here, I think. Of his post-war works, perhaps the single juiciest disc is that on Nimbus of his super-lyrical Piano Concerto (his response to Gieseking playing Beethoven's 4th) and his even-more-super-lyrical Triple Concerto (string trio), the composer conducting. Sublime pieces both.

[karlhenning]

I'm going to say Tippett, because otherwise no one else will . . . .

I should have (see Britten, above, too) if the list had been 15.  Not that Tippett doesn't merit allocation in the first ten . . . he just hasn't been in my recent rotation . . . .

[Archaic Torso of Apollo]

Karl:

Did you leave DSCH out on purpose? I think a lot of his most fascinating work came late in his career.

[karlhenning]

Well, heck, I am going to violate Ray's Heavy Metal Dave's ground rules, and add nos. 11-15:

Britten, Phaedra
Tippett, The Rose Lake
Dutilleux, Symphony № 2, Le double
Steve Reich, Music for 18 Musicians
Ginastera, Concierto para arpa y orquesta

Karl:

Did you leave DSCH out on purpose? I think a lot of his most fascinating work came late in his career.

Agreed . . . I somehow think of him as 'grandfathered' here, though . . . .

[MN Dave]

RAY??? 

[Franco]

George Crumb
George Rochberg
Jacob Druckman
Joseph Schwantner
Carlisle Floyd
Osvaldo Golijov
Karlheinz Stockhausen 
Milton Babbitt
Earle Brown
Raplh Shapey

[karlhenning]

RAY??? 

Eek! I guess I just cannot keep up with all the shifting IDs . . . .

[MN Dave]

Eek! I guess I just cannot keep up with all the shifting IDs . . . .

[Luke]

....I'm not listing, I'll just add as and when...don't know why, it just suits me this way....so, Scelsi, please, and try his violin concerto/hymn to Venus Anahit to hear him at his most seductive

and, one from leftfield, Ronald Stevenson, still going strong, the latest (last?) in the line of great sulphur-and-brimstone-powered pianist-composers-arrangers, Busoni's heir if ever there was one. His Passacaglia on DSCH is the central work in his output, but his two piano concerti, the first a Busoni/Faust fantasy and the second a global gazetteer (much better than this might sound) are perhaps less intense areas of entry.

Finnissy....complexity with soul and conscience, a really individual voice.......Gershwin arrangements, Red Earth, Romeo and Juliet are Drowning (my own favourite Finnissy piece, maybe...)

[bhodges]

It is wonderful that ten seems a bit restrictive!  Nevertheless, here are my faves, with recordings to follow later.

Louis Andriessen
Benjamin Britten
Elliott Carter
Henri Dutilleux
György Ligeti
Olivier Messiaen
Tristan Murail
Dmitri Shostakovich
Alfred Schnittke
Iannis Xenakis

--Bruce

[schweitzeralan]

Well, heck, I am going to violate Ray's Heavy Metal Dave's ground rules, and add nos. 11-15:

Britten, Phaedra
Tippett, The Rose Lake
Dutilleux, Symphony № 2, Le double
Steve Reich, Music for 18 Musicians
Ginastera, Concierto para arpa y orquesta

Agreed . . . I somehow think of him as 'grandfathered' here, though . . . .

"Le Double" is an excellent work.

[MN Dave]

This is a fine beginning. Thanks, gents.

[karlhenning]

. . . I'm asking this because I want to expand my listening but don't want to be led down any goofy avant garde alleyways on my way to modern nirvana.

Although there are times, of course, when the path to Nirvana wends along goofy avant-garde alleyways . . . .

[MN Dave]

I don't doubt it, Karl. But I'm sticking to the major players for now.

[jochanaan]

Here are just a few of my favorites from the last half-century, in no particular order:

Alan Hovhaness, Symphony #2 "Mysterious Mountain"
Henryk Gorecki, "Old Polish Music" (for strings and brass)
George Crumb, "Star Child"
Robert Suderburg, Piano Concerto "in the mirror of time"
William Schuman, Symphony #8
Philip Glass, soundtrack for "Koyaanisqatsi"
Michael Daugherty, Concerto for Percussion and Orchestra "UFO" (written for Evelyn Glennie and recorded by her, Marin Alsop and the Colorado Symphony Orchestra)