Favorite newish tonal orchestral works

[DavidW]

I've been listening to Penderecki's 3rd symphony quite a bit of late, AND I LOVE IT!  From beginning note to end note it rocks like Shostakovich would!   And to think that it's only been recorded once.

Anyway, I want to hear more like that symphony.  And by like I mean orchestral pieces from oh post-50s that are tonal yet clearly their own distinctive works and not simply romantic throwbacks or hollywood sounding scores.  What are your favs?

And yes I've searched before, but previous topics are either not really the same or got mired in a discussion of semantics and died painfully.

[Archaic Torso of Apollo]

Surprised to hear you just discovered KP's 3rd, David - haven't we been down this road before? Anyway, some stuff I like that fits your request:

Adams: Naive and Sentimental Music; Harmonielehre - minimalism battles it out with romanticism
Lindberg: Aura; Cantigas; Fresco - slow-moving, powerful, in-yer-face sonic avalanches
Rouse: Trombone and Flute Concertos; 2nd Symphony - appropriately gritty neo-romanticism
Sallinen: 8th Symphony - autumnal Nordic poignancy
Schnittke: 8th Symphony - this is how life looks when it's all gone
Rochberg: Violin Concerto, 1st Symphony - big sweeping quasi-romantic statements
Norgard: 3rd Symphony - cosmic groovin', a Mahler's 3rd for modern times

I would add some of the Simpson and Arnold symphonies, but you know 'em already, right?

[DavidW]

Surprised to hear you just discovered KP's 3rd, David - haven't we been down this road before?

Yeah I've heard it before, but I just wasn't listening (that's a good memory btw because that was like five years ago! ) now I'm listening.

Anyway, some stuff I like that fits your request:

Adams: Naive and Sentimental Music; Harmonielehre - minimalism battles it out with romanticism
Lindberg: Aura; Cantigas; Fresco - slow-moving, powerful, in-yer-face sonic avalanches
Rouse: Trombone and Flute Concertos; 2nd Symphony - appropriately gritty neo-romanticism
Sallinen: 8th Symphony - autumnal Nordic poignancy
Schnittke: 8th Symphony - this is how life looks when it's all gone
Rochberg: Violin Concerto, 1st Symphony - big sweeping quasi-romantic statements
Norgard: 3rd Symphony - cosmic groovin', a Mahler's 3rd for modern times

Cool beans.

I would add some of the Simpson and Arnold symphonies, but you know 'em already, right?

Yup that's right and they are all terrific.

[Archaic Torso of Apollo]

Further in that style, there are a bunch of North European tonal symphonic composers in the Simpson/Arnold vein, like Holmboe, Tubin, Rubbra, Pettersson and the like.

Check out also their American analogues, like Schuman, Piston, Rochberg and Mennin.

Yet somehow I suspect you're familiar with a lot of this stuff already...

[DavidW]

Well I've heard Tubin before and Piston before but nothing else on that list (and it's been awhile on both).  The thing is that I was just starting to explore this type of music before when I started really discovering chamber music and chamber won (especially for classical era), after that rediscovering baroque era when I started getting into vocal music and somehow aside from the chamber works of Schnittke and Carter the more modern stuff just got left behind.

[Saul]

I thought you said Jewish LOL 

[DavidW]

Haha!   Well I'm just trying to avoid the trap of giving it a name, because then the discussion becomes about the name and not the music.

[Sergeant Rock]

Check out Havergal Brian. Symphonies 6 through 32 were written between 1948 and 1968. Very distinctive voice.

Sarge

[Brian]

If you'll allow me to piggyback on the thread, what about music that isn't "gritty," "autumnal," "cosmic" or "battles"? Sometimes I just like to enjoy myself. It seems these days composers of friendlier music are either Hollywoody (most) or rhapsodic or completely anarchical in formal structure (Daugherty, Sierra). For when I'm not up to the listening challenge of "the present-day Mahler," who's writing approachable music that makes sense?*

*NB my musical vocabulary is liberal enough that Shostakovich 5-11 would fall into this category. It doesn't have to be happy, necessarily, then.

[DavidW]

Brian have you tried John Adams Roadrunner?  It's fun, lively music.  Try a sample here--

http://www.amazon.com/Chamber-Symphony-Roadrunner/dp/B00122L1YO

[DavidW]

Check out Havergal Brian. Symphonies 6 through 32 were written between 1948 and 1968. Very distinctive voice.

Sarge

He wrote 32 symphonies!?!   I had no idea, I only knew about his Gothic symphony (I haven't listened to it though).  Boy it would suck to write that many symphonies, and be most known for the very first one.  As if you hit your peak on the first work, nothing to do but go down hill.

[Archaic Torso of Apollo]

The "Gothic" is pretty staggering, but the several other Brian symphonies I heard just sounded like sludge.  A big disappointment. So yeah, nothing but down hill indeed.

[listener]

At the risk of sounding pedantic, may I point out that the terms "new" and "recent" could be more specific.    "New" might be anything that one person in an a conversation has never heard before,  even a Bach cantata, and "recent" might mean anything in the last forty years to an elderly person, but something from the last five years to someone younger.

And that out of the way, I'll put in a plug for the Lutoslawski Concerto for Orchestra as a favourite 20^th century piece.   It does date from 1958, so "recent" is really stretching the definition here.
Avoid the Chicago/Ozawa recording which was badly engineered.  There are some harp interjections that are obvious edits - you can hear the tape hiss level increase, and that was on vinyl!

I just re-read your original post - you do specify post-1950, no offence was intended in the above.  I think I'm combining reactions to two separate  topics.

Villa-Lobos piano concertos 3,4, 5,  guitar concerto, Ginastera - gotta check some dates, New Zealand's Douglas Lilburn, John Corigliano ("as quiet as..." is particularly charming), ...

[Daverz]

Lindberg: Aura

I would have said that Aura was a spectral piece; not my favorite style of music.  I'll have to give it another listen.

I wish I knew more about Polish composers, but Kilar and Panufnik are worth exploring.

Your best bet is probably Scandinavian composers like Aho, Sallinen, and Rautavaara (though I think I'd avoid the latter's "Angel" works at first.)  Their respective 1st symphonies are good starting places.  Also Baltic composers like Vasks.

But from 1960 to the present?  That's a lot of music.  Americans like Schuman, Diamond, and Persichetti were still active.  Many composers born in the 19th Century were still active.  There's so much, maybe we need to narrow down the criteria.  See this (hardly exhaustive) list of composers:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_20th-century_classical_composers_by_birth_date

Two symphonists I'd especially commend to you are Saygun and Mieczyslaw Weinberg (AKA Moishe Vainberg).  CPO has done all the Saygun symphonies, and the Chandos disk of Weinberg's Symphonies 14 & 16 are a good intro to his later style.

[Archaic Torso of Apollo]

I would have said that Aura was a spectral piece; not my favorite style of music. 

On reflection I think you are right. The same goes for the other Lindberg pieces I mentioned. So I'll substitute the Clarinet Concerto instead, which sounds more conservative.

Your best bet is probably Scandinavian composers like Aho, Sallinen, and Rautavaara (though I think I'd avoid the latter's "Angel" works at first.) 

Yes. In fact, more Sallinen than just the 8th Symphony I mentioned - I really like the 4th, and some people really like the 5th (though that's a bit unconventional).

[DavidW]

And that out of the way, I'll put in a plug for the Lutoslawski Concerto for Orchestra as a favourite 20^th century piece.   It does date from 1958, so "recent" is really stretching the definition here.

I love Lutoslawski, and he is one of the few newish composers that I have a bunch of orchestral recordings still in my collection I like them so much.

[DavidW]

Your best bet is probably Scandinavian composers like Aho, Sallinen, and Rautavaara (though I think I'd avoid the latter's "Angel" works at first.)  Their respective 1st symphonies are good starting places.  Also Baltic composers like Vasks.

One of those Angel works did indeed turn me off of Rautavaara, so perhaps you're right and should try again from a different symphony.  Anyway I've ordered Sallinen's 8th.

[Sergeant Rock]

The "Gothic" is pretty staggering, but the several other Brian symphonies I heard just sounded like sludge.

Yes, but tonal sludge 

A big disappointment. So yeah, nothing but down hill indeed.

David should check out the Brian thread for opinions contrary to yours. In fact, many might choose his 8th Symphony as his best. I'm very partial to 16...and I remain astounded by the upbeat mood of his last symphony, written when he was 92!

Sarge

[vandermolen]

Vasks Symphony No 2

[DavidW]

I'll find that thread, at the worst I could pay itunes $4 to have that 8th symphony and hear for myself.