Fucking ace contemporary classical.

[hummingofevil]

Soz guys. I didn't know where to put this so a new thread is a started.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKkb2q9EbSg

I will post the famous Ligeti shit but this is insanely beautiful. Barbara Hannigan doing an in-store. Well here it is

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFFpzip-SZk

And my pals (literal next door neighbour) winning 2013 Llangllen prize with weird shit:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3FVvTCAmIFE

Check out the mad movement.

You cunts got any more of this shit? Oh I suppose I should add Landscape by John Cage as it's what John Cage Bubblegum is about.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hyNGCHImlEk

I literally am clueless. I need more. Help me. Diolch.

[hummingofevil]

The Erykah Badu NPR set is ace too BTW.

[alan nagsworth]

What little I've heard by Max Richter is fuckin great. His album of recomposition of Vivaldi's Four Seasons is remarkably good, I think (though classical knobheads seem to have slagged it off a fair bit in reviews). I'm a big big big big big big big fan of repetition (so hell yeah Steve Reich and Phillip Glass) and this really ticked that box for me.

[purlieu]

Yes, Richter is a superb post-minimalist composer. So many of them, the likes of Ludvico Einaudi and Debbie Wiseman, do similar music without putting any real feeling or drama into it, so it just putters along like second-rate film music, but Richter usually manages to be really gripping, even when using few ingredients. The Blue Notebooks is rightfully considered his classic, although over time I think I've grown to prefer Infra. All of his eight studio albums are worth a shot.

Dobrinka Tabakova, a Bulgarian composer, has written some of the most incredible string works I've heard. The first movement of her Concerto for Cello and Strings is really astonishing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aq4PCg69DeU
There's a gorgeous collection of her works on ECM called String Paths which is worth tracking down.

Rautavaara's 'Cantus Arcticus', or Concerto for Birds and Orchestra, is a wonderful work for orchestra and tape recordings of birds. The second movement, 'Melankolia', is incredibly haunting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXIfk8TSpxI

Hans Otte's 'Das Buch der Klänge' (The Book of Sounds) is very, very repetitive, but really stunning and very atmospheric. A 12 part work for solo piano. Here's a lovely performance by the composer himself: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5310fFktbU

I love Kate Moore's piano works. Here's Saskia Lankhoorn performing the hypnotic 'Sensitive Spot' (for multiple pianos) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKijWuNSFr4

And of course Arvo Pärt: Summa / Für Alina / Cantus in Memoriam Benjamin Britten / Trisagion / Fratres


In terms of the more vocal stuff like a lot of the opening post, I'm clueless, I always struggle with the style of singing. But Meredith Monk might appeal:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-PVlBnt-x0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3mSVR3xtfU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXLHjBFW2j8

edit: Oh, and Heiner Goebbels too! Master of utterly bonkers German avant-opera type stuff
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ctbfxlLhpQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=edC7RFNaaTk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L41MC1GltH0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdYyYd1N1X4

[jobotic]

purlieu you always come correct. Looking forward to listening to some of those.

This used to be up on Aquarius Records site. I, erm, acquired it but have long since lost it. It's lovely.

https://www.discogs.com/Anton-Batagov-The-Wheel-Of-The-Law/release/3453527

[purlieu]

Well here it is

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFFpzip-SZk

This is absolutely mind-blowing, by the way. Being able to sing or conduct that must be a nightmare, but to do both at the same time, with that amount of energy, in those ludicrous heels... wow. No wonder she looks like she's about to pass out at the end!

[All Surrogate]

Yeah.  I'm not sure who brought Hannigan to my attention on CaB, but it's much appreciated.

Here's a couple of pieces by Iannis Xenakis, which I think I've probably posted before:

Iannis Xenakis - Rebonds B

Iannis Xenakis - Nuits

[purlieu]

This used to be up on Aquarius Records site. I, erm, acquired it but have long since lost it. It's lovely.

https://www.discogs.com/Anton-Batagov-The-Wheel-Of-The-Law/release/3453527

No sign of this anywhere to stream online (it's been removed from Spotify). I'll have to seek it out somewhere!

[chveik]

(relatively) short pieces

Gloria Coates - Symphony #1 (Music on Open Strings)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mV7V-EEI2Uc

Hans Werner Henze - Being Beauteous
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_oXsZCKP9YQ

Henry Cowell - Symphony #11 (Seven Rituals of Music)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7t8hba88puA

Lou Harrison - Suite for Violin and American Gamelan
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DmTZPPNok0Y

Edgar Varèse - Offrandes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qcUEQ2A8HwU

[Twit 2]

Yeah.  I'm not sure who brought Hannigan to my attention on CaB, but it's much appreciated.

Here's a couple of pieces by Iannis Xenakis, which I think I've probably posted before:

Iannis Xenakis - Rebonds B

Iannis Xenakis - Nuits

I mentioned her in this thread:

https://www.cookdandbombd.co.uk/forums/index.php/topic,45726.msg3848247.html#msg3848247

And have posted the GSO Mysteries of the Macabre link a few times in the past...

[purlieu]

Gloria Coates - Symphony #1 (Music on Open Strings)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mV7V-EEI2Uc

Incredible. What a visceral piece of music. I love the fact that, technically, it's structured like a 'proper' symphony, really wonderful experimentation with the form. Definitely going to have to track down a copy of this.

Edgar Varèse - Offrandes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qcUEQ2A8HwU

I always found this very difficult to listen to, even by the standards of mid-20th century modernist music. The description on that video of it being "possibly the most direct statement of his tormented inner world Edgard Varèse ever made" does a good job of summing that up. I always enjoyed Déserts, though (both were together on a CD I purchased for the latter), particularly its electronic sections. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q__g0tgC2wE

[jobotic]

I love this. Lucier does to Beethoven what he did to his own voice in I Am Sitting In A Room, but the effects are more immediate and musical.

Alvin Lucier - Exploration of the House

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=foQaPpXBliY

Henry Cowell - The Tides of Manuanaun

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-a7ndvvdJTo

Giusto Pio - Ananta (he did the string arrangements for a Eurovision entry you know)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMO-aAiT0wk

Messiaen - Le Banquet Celeste

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfTH-VTBgQE

(first heard this on this ace Rrose mix - http://www.self-titledmag.com/2019/04/26/rrose-feature-needle-exchange-mix/)

[Twit 2]

You cunts got any more of this shit?

I literally am clueless. I need more. Help me. Diolch.

'Contemporary classical' is quite wide, so it depends what avenues you want to explore. Many of the pieces posted in this thread are minimalist in nature, ie very tonal and accessible, whereas 'contemporary classical' often conjures up harrowingly complex and abrasive works by the likes of Stockhausen, Birtwistle et al. What I love about 20th century classical is just how many paths you can take from the 'centre' (the western classical tradition) and that develop from outside of tradition (music from other cultures or inspired by other disciplines).

I have a lot of time for Ligeti (wrote my undergrad thesis on his music). If you like 'Mysteries...' you'd also like the opera it comes from (Le Grand Macabre - the Esa Pekka Salonen recording is good), Aventures and the Nonsense Madrigals. Ligeti is like Stravinsky and Picasso, in that he went through many different styles and was recognisable as himself in all of them. So you have the post-Bartok early works like the 1st SQ; the 'musique concrete instrumentale' / 'micropolyphony' of Atmospheres, Lontano etc; the Dada-ist minimalism of the Poeme Symphonique, Musica Ricecarta and Volumina; the African and Jazz inspired Piano Studies; the tonal/traditional horn trio, and so on.

The Ligeti Edition/Ligeti Project are worth delving into. I'd say the essential stuff to listen to is the piano studies (Laurent-Aimard), the Requiem (Jonathan Nott) and the concertos (Boulez), as well Aventures, the 2nd String Quartet and Lux Aeterna. Try and see some live. I've seen Aimard play the piano concerto and Patricia Kopatchinskaja play the violin concerto (also seen Knussen conduct Melodien) and it's something to behold live...

[chveik]

Clock and Clouds is fucking ace too

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfVnazeA3zw