Top 11 Favorite Contemporary Composers

[kyjo]

Another top 11 poll! In no particular order:

1. Aho
2. Broadstock
3. Salonen
4. Sallinen
5. Rautavaara
6. Adams
7. Vine
8. Kinsella
9. Rorem (when he dies-he is currently 90-he will be replaced with Kenneth Fuchs on my list)
10. Vasks
11. Lindberg

(would have included Dutilleux but he passed away earlier this year)

[Brian]

Alphabetically:

John Adams
Lera Auerbach
Slawomir Czarnecki*
Avner Dorman
Gabriela Lena Frank
Philip Glass
Elena Kats-Chernin
Aaron Jay Kernis
Anders Koppel
Morten Lauridsen
Krzysztof Penderecki

*provisional inclusion based on hearing only one work under ten minutes long (it's that good)

-

Kyle, I like many of the composers on your list (especially Aho, Sallinen, and Rautavaara, who might have displaced Kernis and/or Lauridsen from my list), but I don't know who Broadstock and Kinsella are, and I'm afraid I've never found something to like about Lindberg or Kenneth Fuchs. Wait... on second thought there was one Fuchs piece I enjoyed? Hrrm. Must research.

[bhodges]

(I'm assuming we're talking living composers.)

Louis Andriessen
Georges Aperghis
Harrison Birtwistle
Unsuk Chin
Beat Furrer
Sofia Gubaidulina
György Kurtág
Helmut Lachenmann
Tristan Murail
Olga Neuwirth
Wolfgang Rihm

Here's a more-than-decent list of names, to help jog the memory:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_21st-century_classical_composers

--Bruce

[DavidW]

Ligeti, Carter, Penderecki, Kurtag, Glass... need to listen to more.

[Karl Henning]

(I'm assuming we're talking living composers.)

Louis Andriessen

Huzzah for Louis!

[bhodges]

Huzzah for Louis!

He's a great one, for sure - just heard Workers Union again last spring, by a ferociously talented group of young musicians.

--Bruce

[Karl Henning]

And Hoketus, it just works, mate

[bhodges]

And Hoketus, it just works, mate

Yep, love that one, too.

--Bruce

[bhodges]

That's more than 11 but who's counting?

0:)

--Bruce

[TheGSMoeller]

Philip Glass
Paul Schoenfield
Zbigniew Preisner
Harrison Birtwistle
Steve Reich
Michael Nyman
David Lang
Michael Gordon
Charles Wuorinen*
Elena Kats-Chernin*
Krzysztof Penderecki*

*Composers who I have just come to know this past year, still have many of their works to discover but have really enjoyed what I've heard so far from them.

[kyjo]

Kyle, I like many of the composers on your list (especially Aho, Sallinen, and Rautavaara, who might have displaced Kernis and/or Lauridsen from my list), but I don't know who Broadstock and Kinsella are, and I'm afraid I've never found something to like about Lindberg or Kenneth Fuchs. Wait... on second thought there was one Fuchs piece I enjoyed? Hrrm. Must research.

I don't blame you for not being familiar with Broadstock or Kinsella, as they are shamefully neglected on disc and by the general public. Broadstock's five symphonies, available on the set linked to below, were amazing discoveries for me-deeply emotional and dramatic music with moments of heavenly beauty and volcanic power.

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Kinsella's music is more Nordic-sounding than Irish, betraying the influence of Sibelius above all. I would recommend the disc below, as it contains some atmospheric, compelling music:

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As for Lindberg, I don't like his earlier avant-garde-ish works much at all; I much prefer his later, tonal works, which exhibit a mastery of orchestral color and textures. Fuchs' music may be too conservative for some tastes-his style wouldn't have raised any eyebrows in the 1940s-but I find it, with its appealing mixture of Coplandesque wide-open spaces, VW-like lyrical pastoralism and impressionism, to be very uplifting and enjoyable. Another contemporary American composer who writes in a similar vein as Fuchs is Arnold Rosner, who I could've easily included as well.

[kyjo]

(I'm assuming we're talking living composers.)

Yes, we are!

[kyjo]

Three composers who some are listing I'm not familiar with at all, I'll admit: Birtwistle, Kats-Chernin and Wuorinen. Any recording recommendations and/or descriptions of their style? I'd appreciate it.  

[kyjo]

Aaron Jay Kernis

I could've included Kernis as well. His Musica celestis (in both the string quartet and string orchestra versions) is heavenly, and I have also been deeply impressed with his urgently dramatic and moving Symphony no. 2 (inspired by the Persian Gulf War) and his haunting Cello Concerto Colored Field.

[amw]

Far too many came to mind off the top of my head so I'll limit it by style

New complexity - Evan Johnson
New simplicity - Michael Pisaro
Musique concrète instrumentale - Helmut Lachenmann
Musique concrète electronique - Beatriz Ferreyra (barely missed out due to not being "contemporary" any longer: Roland Kayn)
Postminimalism - John Luther Adams
Postspectralism - Tristan Murail
Postserialism - György Kurtág?
Postromanticism - actually, no one comes to mind off the top of my head, but perhaps Stucky, Salonen or Rzewski
Microtonality - Ben Johnston and/or Enno Poppe
Difficult to classify - Jo Kondo, Michael Finnissy, Chris Newman, Robert Ashley

Some composers who might have made it but missed out due to these criteria include Ferneyhough, Sciarrino, Richard Barrett and Jakob Ullmann. Some composers who I need to listen to more of before they'll get a place include Radigue, Hespos and Jürg Frey.

[Brahmsian]

Doing the best I can (I need to explore more living and still breathing composer's music) 

In no particular order:

Penderecki
Henning
Gubaidulina
Estacio, John
Golijov
Aho
Adams
Kernis
Ades

[Karl Henning]

Three composers who some are listing I'm not familiar with at all, I'll admit: Birtwistle, Kats-Chernin and Wuorinen. Any recording recommendations and/or descriptions of their style? I'd appreciate it.  

Three Wuorinen pieces I should recommend straight off:

the Third Piano Concerto
the Mass for the Restoration of St Luke's
the String Sextet

[kyjo]

Estacio, John

A new name to me; thanks for bringing him up! I only see one recording dedicated to his music available on Amazon (and it's out-of-print ), this intriguing-looking disc of his orchestral music:

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Do you have this CD or any other recordings of his music, Ray?

[kyjo]

Three Wuorinen pieces I should recommend straight off:

the Third Piano Concerto
the Mass for the Restoration of St Luke's
the String Sextet

Thanks Karl, I see you wrote a favorable and helpful review on Amazon of the Nonesuch disc including the PC no. 3!

[kyjo]

Yes, I highly recommend Birtwistle's Secret Theatre ..  top choice recording below ..

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Thanks, James! I've been considering this two-disc set, which includes what is often considered Birtwistle's most exciting and accessible work, the Earth Dances, among others:

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Any views on this one?