# Gateway pieces to composers



## Richannes Wrahms (Jan 6, 2014)

In this thread we post what we think are the gateway pieces for composers you or anybody else have considered difficult to get for one reason or another.

Here's some of my list in no particular order:

Brahms - String sextet No.1 , String Quintet No. 2
Bruckner - Symphony No.9
Mahler - Symphony No. 1, Rückert lieder
Strauss - Oboe Concerto
Schoenberg - Piano Concerto
Berg - Violin Concerto
Webern - Quartet op. 22
Szymanowski - Violin Concerto
Stravinsky - Firebird suite 
Bartók - Piano Concerto No. 3
Hindemith - Bassoon sonata, Viola sonata op. 11 No. 4, Mathis der Maler Symphony
Messiaen - L'Ascension
Carter - Changes for Guitar
Ligeti - Etude 2
Boulez - Derive 1
Feldman - Rothko Chapel
Kurtág - Officium breve
Cage - Amores 
Britten - Phantasy Quartet 
Takemitsu - Rain spell
Birtwistle - The Shadow of Night 
Ferneyhough - Cassandra's Dream Song
Murail - Seven Lakes Drive
Benjamin - Three Inventions
Ádes - Traced Overhead, Polaris


----------



## larold (Jul 20, 2017)

Of the composers I thought were (mostly) difficult to understand these would be some of the compositions that either helped me better understand them or exposed a dimension not apparent in their most popular works:

*Sibelius *Symphonies 3 and 7

*Stravinsky* Pulcinella and Suite Italienne

*Elgar* Falstaff, Te Deum in C major

*Bruckner* Piano music, Os Justi, Locus Iste, Ecce sacerdos, Missa Solemnis

*Brahms* Clarinet sonatas, Schicksalslied, Alto Rhapsody

*Mendelssohn* Piano Sonata No. 1 Op. 6, First Walpurgis Night

*Beethoven* early chamber music such as Quintet for Oboe, Three Horns and Bassoon in E flat, Sechs Lieder von Gellert

*Hadyn* Battle of the Nile, Symphony 60 "Il Distratto"

*Debussy* Jeux

*Ibert* Symphonie Concertante for Oboe and Strings

*Hummel* Octet-Partita In E flat major for winds, Grand Serenades Opp. 63 and 66

*Ennio Morricone* Concerto for Orchestra AKA Concerto No. 1 (1957)

*Mozart *Masonic Music, Thamos King of Egypt

*Rossini* Concerto for Bassoon and Orchestra (1845)

*Shostakovich* Fall of Berlin

*Richard Strauss* Duet-Concertino for Clarinet and Bassoon

*Triebensee *Concertino in E flat for Harpsichord, Wind Octet and Double Bass

*Varese *Ameriques, Nocturnal, Ecuatorial

*Ravel* Introduction and Allegro for Flute and String Quartet

*Jerry Goldsmith* Alien complete score

*Bernard Herrmann* Symphony No. 1 (the one he directed)


----------



## ORigel (May 7, 2020)

Brahms Gateway: Hungarian Dances, String Sextet no. 1 movement 2, Symphony no. 3

Beethoven Gateway: Symphonies, Piano Concerto no. 4, String Quartet no. 12 movement 1

Bach Gateway: Mass in B Minor Kyrie

Bartok Gateway: Concerto for Orchestra, Cantata Profana

Xenakis Gateway: Eonta


----------



## Ethereality (Apr 6, 2019)

Gateway pieces? There's music I like, and music I don't like. Listening to new music is just about getting bored with my favorites and finding something I'd otherwise also enjoy. I'm not sure what gateway means.


----------



## Highwayman (Jul 16, 2018)

Berio - Sequenza V for Trombone
Boulez - Piano Sonata no. 2
Brahms - Piano Concerto no. 2
Britten - The Turn of the Screw
Carter - String Quartet no. 3
Davies - An Orkney Wedding, With Sunrise
Gubaidulina - Concerto for Bassoon and Low Strings
Handel - Keyboard Suites
Haydn - String Quartet op. 76 no. 2 "Quinten" 
Hindmith - Harp Sonata
Ives - A Symphony: New England Holidays 
Ligeti - Horn Trio
Mahler - Symphony no. 5
Messiaen - Apparition de l'église éternelle 
Penderecki - Utrenja
Saariaho - D'Om le Vrai Sens
Schnittke - (K)ein Sommernachtstraum
Schönberg - Chamber Symphony no. 1, op. 9 
Shostakovich - Preludes and Fugues, op. 87 
Szymanowski - Mythes


----------



## Prodromides (Mar 18, 2012)

Valen - *Ave Maria* (an orchestral song whose melodic line aided me into Valen's dense polyphonic atonality)
Sessions - *Symphony No.9* (an Argo CD with sterling recording & performances which persuaded me to schedule more Sessions  )
Messiaen - *Chronochromie* (more color, a little less birdsong & no blatant Christianity - ideal for my neighborhood)
Maderna - *Composizione no.2* + *Improvisation for orchestra No.1* (early '50s Darmstadt pieces to help as I struggle with later Maderna)
Xenakis - *Echange* (a later opus with clarinet that appeals to me to perservere through his earlier more uncompromising works) 
Nono - *Variazioni Canoniche* (further early-'50s dodecaphony which sits better with me than his subsequent 'agitprop' materials)
Heininen - *Adagio* + *The Damask Drum* (fluid orchestrations here help me appreciate this composer's austerity elsewhere)
Rihm - *Die Eroberung von Mexico* (operatic excursion to the Americas conquers my attention more than anything else of his)

Owning 3 albums of music by Franco Donatoni for the past 25 years, I still haven't been able to ascertain any 'gateway' into Donatoni's mindset. I don't think I'll ever penetrate into Donatoni's music - it all seems _opposite_ to my ways of thinking and my aesthetic inclinations.


----------



## Superflumina (Jun 19, 2020)

Haydn - String Quartet op. 20 No. 3 in G minor
Rachmaninov - Isle of the Dead
Sibelius - Symphony No. 5
Ravel - Piano Concerto in G
Boulez - Rituel or Répons


----------



## Chatellerault (Apr 4, 2017)

Brahms - Piano Concertos 1 & 2
Bruckner - Symphony No.4
Villa-Lobos - Chôros no. 1, 2 and 10
Bartók - Concerto for Orchestra
Lutoslawski - Concerto for Orchestra
Messiaen - L'Ascension
Shostakovich - Symphonies no. 5 and 9
Chávez - Symphony no. 2, "India"
Dutilleux - Métaboles, Piano Sonata
Ginastera - Cello Concertos 1 & 2
Maxwell Davies - Fantasia on a Ground and 2 Pavans (after Purcell)
Prado - Cartas Celestes no. 1
Riley - In C


----------

