'Classical' music since 1960 that you really care about

[A Lark Ascending]

This was alluded to in another thread - the relative neglect of interest in contemporary 'classical' by contrast with the established repetoire.

So...not what is important or significant or innovative or whatever...but what CDs/LPs/downloads/cylinder recordings of music written since 1960 (an arbitrary date so feel free to waver a bit) give you the same emotional punch as a Beethoven or Stravinsky or Sibelius favourite. Be nice if you could articulate why it moves you (I know that is very hard but it might provide a window...)

Though I have recordings from this era I still feel largely at sea here. Looking for some pointers from people more in the know.

Edited December 6, 2009 by Bev Stapleton

[randyhersom]

Gorecki Third Symphony, for it's heart being unashamedly on its sleeve. I like the Second also for its swarming insect effects in the brass.

Rautavaara Seventh Symphony - just beautiful, it really stood out on a long MP3 disc I made of modern stuff.

Kalevi Aho several symphonies. I participated in a thread on the eMusic message boards which was joined by Robert from BIS and he communicated his enthusiasm for this composer very convincingly.

[carnivore]

I agree with Randy regarding Gorecki and Rautavaara. Gorecki's third string quartet played by Kronos is something I keep coming back to and find utterly mesmerizing. It has an extraordinarily beautiful theme buried part way into it. I also like the music of Osvaldo Golijov very much - Ainadamar has a section for trumpet and orchestra that is, given the similarity of genre more perfectly realized - and more moving than anything on Miles/Gil's Sketches of Spain. The CD 'Oceana' has a setting of Emily Dickenson's 'How Slow the Wind' sung by Dawn Upshaw that is stunning - and I love Golijov's melding of his various influences - East European Jewish, Argentinian etc.

I also find John Corigliano's music to contain much depth of emotion coupled with superb craft and melodic invention. The Second Symphony, based on his string quartet is a great experience with marvelous subtlety and Corigliano displays a gift for extracting amazing sounds from the players.

Finally I also from time to time listen to the symphonies of Allan Pettersen - I don't think there are many of us who do, though. And not too often!

[AllenLowe]

The Yellow Shark - Zappa.

To me his "serious" work has all the energy and edge (as in having some contact with life) that the academics largely miss.

[A Lark Ascending]

Thanks for those recommendations. I must listen to the Gorecki 3rd again. It was a big 'hit' over here in the early 90s. At the time I found it a bit static but suspect I'm more open to that sort of thing now.

I've been exploring Aho and, especially, Rautavaara myself of late. In fact I find a fair bit of the more recent music that has touched me has come from Scandinavia. I find myself returning to Sallinen quite frequently.

One from the 80s that really moved me was the late Nicholas Maw's 'Odyssey' - I saw an early performance in Nottingham some time before Rattle recorded it. Doesn't have the melodic memorability of Mahler (what does in contemporary music...composers seem terrified of a delicious tune, fearful they might be accused of vulgarity) but has that same mammoth sweep.

Another piece I really like is a recording of pieces by Judith Weir called 'The Welcome Arrival of Rain'. James MacMillan's recordings have also caught my ear as have Tōru Takemitsu's.

I'm fond of John Adams and have been slowly overcoming a long aversion to the likes of Reich and Glass in the last couple of years (that fear of seemingly static repetition again!).

This record from a young Finn keeps returning to the player:

Beautiful orchestral colours, harking back to Debussy or Scriabin with the inevitable Sibelius echoes.

*************

Hopefully people can add to this thread as they encounter things or rediscover things in their collections. Could be a useful resource.

[7/4]

Eyebrows, he called it.

The Perfect Stranger with Boulez conducting is great too. Earlier Classical Zappa I've grown less thrilled with, although I really like the percussion on the LSO album & I love his Synclavier computer music too.

I think Bev is looking for something less obvious.

Lou Harrison is worth checking out...I only have a small chunk of his work. Highly melodic.

I'll have to give this one some more thought.

[A Lark Ascending]

I think Bev is looking for something less obvious.

Not really. I'm interested in anything that has given people a real buzz. Doesn't mean it'll give me a buzz, but its a good place to start.

Too many professional reviews concentrate on why a record or piece is important in the grand scheme of things. I'm always more interested in what people find emotionally involving.

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

I haven't got it any more but I loved Daniel-Lesur's Symphonie de Danses. And I loved it because it SANG and DANCED!

One with a lot of energy was Leonard Bernstein's Chichester psalms - somewhere between Elgar's choral works and Orff's - if you can imagine

Not groundbreaking stuff, but I enjoyed listening to them a great deal.

Sometimes I wish I hadn't flogged all my classical records.

MG

[Michael Weiss]

Not really the answer you're looking for. But one of my favorite composers still doing it after 1960:

Messiaen:

Sept Haïkaï (1962)

Couleurs de la Cité Céleste (1963)

Des Canyons aux Etoiles (1974)

My comment might have been the one you alluded to, but I was really referring to a much wider net of 20th century music in general.

Edited December 7, 2009 by Michael Weiss

[randyhersom]

Just revisited the coupling of Symphony #2 and Violin Concerto by Peteris Vasks, quite nice.

Also was surprised to find that works by Poulenc and Britten fit this category.

[Michael Weiss]

Ligeti's Études pour piano

[A Lark Ascending]

Also was surprised to find that works by Poulenc and Britten fit this category.

I tend to think of them (and Shostakovich too) as being stylistically of an earlier period - the bulk of their output predates the (random) cut-off point. They also have lots of music that is very well known; where most 'classical' from after 1960 has a pretty narrow following (minimalists excepted).

[Hoppy T. Frog]

Reich's Music for 18 Musicians, original ECM recording.

[porcy62]

Too many professional reviews concentrate on why a record or piece is important in the grand scheme of things. I'm always more interested in what people find emotionally involving.

Agree hundred per cent!

Even illiterates like me should be allow to music, overall we live in a democratic society, aren't we?

I liked very much Gavin Bryars' "The Sinking of Titanic" and "Jesus' Blood Never Failed Me Yet" and Michael Nyman's scores for Greenway's movies.

Gorecki's symphonies and Zappa's "classical" works are among my faves, so is Arvo Part's works.

Edited December 13, 2009 by porcy62

[CJ Shearn]

George Duke's "Muir Woods Suite" is nice with the blending of classical, and jazz elements.

[Larry Kart]

This could be easily three times as long:

Lars Hallnas: Wo der Wind den Steg unwehet (Content) -- A Swede and the only damn supposed minimalist who's ever done a thing for me

Messiaen: "St. Francis"

Alexander Goehr : Piano Concerto and Symphony in Three Movements (NMC) -- other Goehr works, too

Robin Holloway: Second and Third Concerti for Orchestra (NMC)

Bill Hopkins: Complete Piano Music (Col Legno)

Judith Weir: "The Consolations of Scholarship" (United)

Stefan Wolpe: Just about everything that falls with this time period, especially Chamber Piece No. 1 -- unfortunately, the great recording of this piece (cond. by Arthur Weisberg on Nonesuch) may not be available, and the one that is, on Arte Nova, is not good.

Salvatore Sciarrino: Complete Piano Works (Metronome)

Martin Boykan: Elegy (CRI)

Paul Cooper: Violin Concerto (CRI)

Lots of Morton Feldman, including Triadic Memories, played by Louis Goldstein, and Three Voices, sung by ensemble accroche note

[randyhersom]

I revisited George Crumb's Makrokosmos III for two pianos and two percussionists recently and still enjoy it. I have liked what I heard of Arvo Part also. And, out of left field, Luminessence by Keith Jarrett with Jan Garbarek as soloist (with string orchestra, no piano) has always been a favorite. None of the pieces on In The Light stuck with me nearly as much.

[A Lark Ascending]

None of the pieces on In The Light stuck with me nearly as much.

Bizarrely, this was my first Jarrett album (and first ECM!). I've always liked the long flute and strings piece, the brass music and the track with Ralph Towner (which set me off exploring him). The string quartet loses me.

I've never heard Luminessence but I have the later Arbor Zena with Garbarek, Haden and strings - I've always found it a bit glacial. The strings seem to move as a block - I don't get much of a sense of the independent movement of parts that a dedicated orchestral writer can bring off.

[mjazzg]

I've been enjoying Tigran Mansurian recently, especially Confessing for Faith for viola and four voices. Performed by Hilliard Ensemble and Kim Kashkasian (ECM). Can definitely hear the composer's Armenian heritage, very interesting writing for the voices

Also through the Mansurian/Kashkasian link I discovered Neharot by Betty Olivero, released on a recent ECM of that name. Fascinating use of old vocal recordings and nods to Monteverdi

[mikeweil]

Anything by Belgian Thierry de Mey - but discs with his music are hard to find ... very distinctive rhythmic style.

http://www.digicult....cle.asp?id=1249

http://www.epidemic..../prj/meygb.html

Here is his Musique de Table - to me, one of the greatest pieces of percussion music I ever saw performed!

http://www.youtube.c...h?v=C8jh4vgP9Ec

Edited December 16, 2009 by mikeweil

[BruceH]

I particularly like Steve Reich.

Let's see...Morton Feldman...George Crumb....

Can't think of much else, right now.

OTOH, I'm not much of a fan of Philip Glass.

[mjazzg]

A concert broadcast last night on BBC Radio 3 introduced me to George Crumb's music.....

Pianist Joanna MacGregor joins the celebration playing his Little Suite for Christmas, AD 1979, described as a 'holy tone-poem' for piano, inspired by Giotto's frescoes in the Scrovegni Chapel.

The orchestra is then joined by soloists, soprano Claudia Barainsky, the Trinity Boys Choir and the New London Chamber Choir for a performance of Crumb's largest work in terms of performing forces, Star-Child, which traces a blazing, inspired vision from apocalyptic darkness to redeeming light.

Very interesting, both the smaller scale piano music and the decidedly large scale Star Child. I'll be investigating further.

For those interested the concert can be streamed for week here http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00p8hp7#synopsis

cheers

[Larry Kart]

Anyone familiar with the works of English composer Bernard Stevens (1916-1983)? I've known about his music for about ten years and re-listening today to his Second Symphony (1962) and his Cello Concerto (1952) I was very impressed. Other works of substantial scope that I'll be checking out now are his Violin Concerto (1943), his Piano Concerto (1955), his Variations for Orchestra (1962), his Dance Suite (1957), his First Symphony (1945), and two string quartets.

It's been said that Stevens had a kinship to Shostakovich, but I don't hear it. Perhaps a bit like latter-day Hindemith but without the harmonic circularity, and with grit and balls and a terrific austere "ear," especially for brass sonority and for unusual combinations of instruments that sound inevitable, e.g. a passage in the adagio of the Cello Concerto where solo flute flies contrapuntally above cello and orchestra.

[A Lark Ascending]

I have Stevens' cello concerto on an old cassette tape (from my days of illicitly taping things not available commercially from the library!). Haven't played it in many a year. Will need to seek it out and give it a try.

William Mathias is another very appealing UK composer (Welsh, actually) who did the bulk of his writing during this time period. Three symphonies, concertos, choral, organ music (he was associated with St. Asalph's in Wales) etc. More in the British-take-on-Stravinsky-esque mould - a bit like the Holst of the '20s (or, perhaps, Rawsthorne). There are recordings on Lyrita and Nimbus. I heard an especially wonderful organ concerto one year in Gloucester as part of the Three Choirs Festival (a famous Britocentric shindig). Sadly, I don't think it ever got recorded. This one is especially enjoyable:

Can't beat a good harp concerto!

Edited December 20, 2009 by Bev Stapleton

[mikeweil]

I particularly like Steve Reich.

...

OTOH, I'm not much of a fan of Philip Glass.

I think Glass is heavily overrated, as are most of the so-called minimalists. Riley's original idea was great, but only few created soemting really substantial out of it.

I think even Reich is overrated - some well-trained jazz ensemble given the appropriate rules could improvise something like his works with little problems.

Edited December 21, 2009 by mikeweil