20th Century Music Recommendation Needed

[ClassicalWeekly]

I run a classical music website where I post suggested works each week and I've hit a bit of a roadblock and could use some help.  I love classical music but I'm really not too experienced with anything post-1900 (other than Puccini and of course Adagio for Strings).  Most of the works I've posted on my site (if not all) are pre-1900 and in order to expand what I offer, I think I need to add some post-1900 classical music.

So along those lines, can someone give me a "top 5" classical music works of the 20th century -- minus Adagio for Strings and minus the Rachmaninoff Piano Concertos?

Any suggestions are greatly appreciated -- and hey, I may even find something I like!

Thanks!

[knight66]

Here is a link to a thread about 20 cent. orchestral pieces.

http://www.good-music-guide.com/community/index.php/topic,16404.msg417112.html#msg417112

If you feed in 20th century to the search engine, you will find a lot od discussion and suggestions. You could try a range of the pieces out on You Tube.

Debussy: La Mer
Prokofiev: Classical Symphony, (Sym No 1)
Vaughn Williams: Variations on a theme of Thomas Tallis
Rodrigo: Guitar Concerto
Philip Glass: Violin Concerto
Carl Rutti: Requiem
Golijov: Ayre (2004)

Those pieces range across the 20th Century and all are very accessable. Others may suggest more adventurous pieces. But there is an enormous range of material from late Mahler, early Schoenberg and Richard Strauss onwards.

Mike

[Archaic Torso of Apollo]

Carl Rutti: Requiem

Carl Who?

Anyway, here are 5 pieces any 20th-c. fan should know:

Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring
Mahler: Symphony #9
Shostakovich: Symphony #5
Berg: Wozzeck
Bartok: Concerto for Orchestra

Caveat: I could come up with a dozen more lists of pieces any 20th-c. fan should know. The 5 I listed, though, are safe (practically indisputable) choices. Someone will doubtless note that they cover only the first half of the century...but you have to start somewhere.

[The new erato]

Not an obvious choice I guess, have hardly heard about the guy myself.

[Tapio Dmitriyevich]

You really should dig into Mahler and Shostakovich. Basically the Mahler hype is about his Symphonies and Lieder/Song cycles, and in case of Shostakovich it's the Symphonies (yes: #5 is a safe bet) and String Quartets.
There are a lot of Shostakovich enthusiasts here. See also: Favorite Moments in a Shostakovich Symphony.

[Jaakko Keskinen]

Here goes for nothing:

Sibelius: Symphony no 6.
Richard Strauss: Electra.
Stravinsky: Le sacre du printemps(who didn't see this one coming?).
Bartok: Violin concerto BB 117.
Schönberg: String quartet no 2.

[Brian]

I'm going to second Mike's list. It's all really easily likable stuff - so any listener who's mostly a 19th century fan should be able to listen to La Mer, or the Rodrigo or Glass, and enjoy it instantly. I've even heard the Rutti, and although I did think it a bit long, that's because I'm just not a big singing person. If you like, say, Faure's Requiem, then you will like the Rutti very much.

Alberich suggests some good stuff, too. Anybody who likes Rimsky-Korsakov (Scheherazade, etc) will like Stravinsky's Firebird, and from there it's only a small hop away to The Rite of Spring. And you'll find exciting, emotional stuff in Shostakovich Symphonies 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, and 11. (5 is The Famous One, although my own favorites are 6, which is half very dramatic and half very silly, 9, which is a sort of homage to Haydn, and 10 - maybe his most personal, romantic symphony.) Shostakovich's Piano Concerto No 2 is a really interesting alternative to the Rachmaninov Piano Concertos, because it's intentionally really pared down and simple but still very emotional.

Oh: everything Maurice Ravel ever wrote!

[Archaic Torso of Apollo]

I'm going to second Mike's list. It's all really easily likable stuff - so any listener who's mostly a 19th century fan should be able to listen to La Mer, or the Rodrigo or Glass, and enjoy it instantly.

IMHO a questionable criterion - basically "20th century music that sounds like 19th century music! Nothing to be afraid of, folks!"

Shouldn't such lists try to give newbies an idea of what makes 20th century music different?

[The new erato]

This is the nice and easy route and it might work well.

[Brian]

IMHO a questionable criterion - basically "20th century music that sounds like 19th century music! Nothing to be afraid of, folks!"

Shouldn't such lists try to give newbies an idea of what makes 20th century music different?

Well, to be honest, it depends on what the original poster wants to listen to. It also depends on whether you want to move forward slowly or jump right in. For instance, listening to "The Firebird" before "The Rite of Spring" might not just be because Firebird is, so to speak, easier or less fearful, but it also illustrates where exactly Rite was coming from. As great as it would be to be able to say, "this is what makes 20th century music different" and then play Shosty's Fifteenth, Boulez's Notations, and Scelsi's Four Pieces on Only One Note, you'd only do that if you knew your listener was fearless, ambitious, or at least not likely to get woozy-eyed.

[not edward]

I'll assume that we're talking orchestral music, and do want to give something of the sheer variety of styles in the 20th Century.

Stravinsky: Rite of Spring (1913) -- the power of irregular rhythm
Sibelius: Symphony No 7 (1924) -- the taut one-movement symphonic work is key in this century
Berg: Violin Concerto (1935) -- the classic entry point into serial music
Lutoslawski: Symphony No 3 (1983) -- the symphony reinvented for a post-tonal style
Ligeti: Violin Concerto (1992) -- one of the greatest and most influential post-war composers sums up his career

[karlhenning]

I'll assume that we're talking orchestral music . . .

. . . but just in case we're open to chamber music:

Stravinsky, L'histoire du soldat, complete (1918)
Hindemith, Konzertmusik, Opus 49 for piano, brass & two harps (1930)
Messiaen, Quatuor pour la fin du temps (1941)
Bartók, Sonata for violin unaccompanied (1943)
Prokofiev, Sonata for violin & piano in f minor, Opus  80 (1938-1946)

[ClassicalWeekly]

Holy cow! I can't believe all of the responses!  Thanks.

And this, Velimir, is hilarious,

IMHO a questionable criterion - basically "20th century music that sounds like 19th century music! Nothing to be afraid of, folks!"

I laugh because I happen to really like La Mer and I find Rodrigo very accessible!

But it's exactly my point --  the "problem" that I have with 20th century music, specifically, is that it isn't like earlier music and I need to learn to expand my ear.

I guess that it's just that 20th century music is so less "framed", for lack of a better word so it's harder to get a grip around it (IMHO) vs a Mozart Piano Concerto.

Well you all have given me a wonderful list to start with and I do appreciate everyone's contributions.  Now off to hear some "new" (for me) music!

Much appreciated!

[knight66]

Carl Who?

Anyway, here are 5 pieces any 20th-c. fan should know:

Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring
Mahler: Symphony #9
Shostakovich: Symphony #5
Berg: Wozzeck
Bartok: Concerto for Orchestra

Caveat: I could come up with a dozen more lists of pieces any 20th-c. fan should know. The 5 I listed, though, are safe (practically indisputable) choices. Someone will doubtless note that they cover only the first half of the century...but you have to start somewhere.

Yes, That's where Rutti comes in, and Glass and Golijov.

Mike

[karlhenning]

Rütti, Tüt-tüt

[knight66]

Tüt-tüt! Never heard of him, what did he write?


Mike

[karlhenning]

No, I think that's the title of a woodwind quintet by Rütti . . . .

[stingo]

There's a somewhat similar thread in Great Recordings with quite a few recommendations.

[Cato]

Random - at times adventurous and idiosyncratic - recommendations:

Bartok: The Miraculous Mandarin
Busoni: Doctor Faust and the Piano Concerto
Julian Carrillo: Christopher Columbus Prelude
Karl Amadeus Hartmann: Symphonies VI-VIII
Charles Ives: Robert Browning Overture, Holidays Symphony
Gustav Mahler: Symphonies V-X
Krzysztof Penderecki: Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima
Sergei Prokofiev: Symphonies II - III, Scythian Suite, Chout
Arnold Schoenberg: Pelleas und Melisande, Five Pieces for Orchestra
Alexander Zemlinsky: Six Songs for Orchestra

[karlhenning]

Cato has succeeded where any list of five must fail, that is, in giving some idea of the breadth of the 20th century in music.