# Your favorite 21st c. composers of solo piano music



## hreichgott

I'm doing research  Who are some of your favorites? Especially interested if you've ever played their music.

Here are some of my favorite 21st c. composers of solo piano music:
Arvo Part
Sofia Gubaidulina
Frederick Rzewski
Ned Rorem and Harrison Birtwistle (I confess I think of them more as 20th c. but they're certainly still writing)

Some favorite 21st c. composers I've actually corresponded with and recorded are
Nikolas Sideris
Jennifer Higdon
Gwyneth Walker
Pavel Konyukhov
and our very own Steven O'Brien and Jake Bellissimo (oogabooha)

I like David Lang and Michael Daugherty but haven't managed to hear much of their solo piano output yet.

I really like the ensemble music of David Maslanka and Gabriel Prokofiev, but don't find the solo piano music as appealing.

I have a score of Nickos Harizanos on my shelf on someone else's recommendation. It looks pretty great but I haven't had a chance to really dig in yet.


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## Bruce

I'll start off with Rzewski and randall woolf. 

I've liked what I've heard of Judith Zaimont, too. 

And Andrew Lewis is still composing I believe. 

Those four are right up there, if not my favorites.


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## Animato

To give this thread another reply: I'm sorry, I do not know a single composer of the 21st century who wrote piano pieces. ACtually this is not quite correct: Some of my "piano-friends" write piano pieces and did perform them before an audience. But they are not famous, their works not published (of course). 

You see, today, "living" classical music consists of - I do not know - about 95 or even 99 percent of performing works of other centuries. In the 19th century it was the opposite: Verdi's operas often were played only for one saison. There were so many composers of operas in Italy at that time.


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## Mandryka

hreichgott said:


> I'm doing research  Who are some of your favorites? Especially interested if you've ever played their music.
> 
> Here are some of my favorite 21st c. composers of solo piano music:
> Arvo Part
> Sofia Gubaidulina
> Frederick Rzewski
> Ned Rorem and Harrison Birtwistle (I confess I think of them more as 20th c. but they're certainly still writing)
> 
> Some favorite 21st c. composers I've actually corresponded with and recorded are
> Nikolas Sideris
> Jennifer Higdon
> Gwyneth Walker
> Pavel Konyukhov
> and our very own Steven O'Brien and Jake Bellissimo (oogabooha)
> 
> I like David Lang and Michael Daugherty but haven't managed to hear much of their solo piano output yet.
> 
> I really like the ensemble music of David Maslanka and Gabriel Prokofiev, but don't find the solo piano music as appealing.
> 
> I have a score of Nickos Harizanos on my shelf on someone else's recommendation. It looks pretty great but I haven't had a chance to really dig in yet.


Wasn't Stockhausen's wonderful Naturliche Dauern written in the 21st century? And Finnissy's History of Photography in Sound?


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## Jobis

Sciarrino has written some quite compelling piano pieces, I think. Due Notturni Crudeli comes to mind.






Beat Furrer's Phasma is very very good.






The rather constant muffled rhythmic pattern is supposed to mimic human speech patterns, I believe.


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## hreichgott

Great suggestions, keep them coming!


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## Guest

can I say Rzewski too?


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## starthrower

Any opinions on the recordings of Gubaidulina's piano works? I thought most of her solo piano pieces were written in the 60s and 70s?


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## hreichgott

^ That's true. A few of my favorites may only be 21st c. on a technicality... part of why I'm enthusiastically looking around for more that I do not know yet.

I like Diana Baker's recording of the complete Gubaidulina piano works.


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## starthrower

^^^
Thanks! I just might go with her recent Repentance CD, which includes her piano sonata.


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## GioCar

Beside Sciarrino's works mentioned above, I'd also recommend the works by Ivan Fedele (b. 1953)

http://www.composers21.com/compdocs/fedelei.htm

Here's an amazing CD I bought quite recently










Ivan Fedele: Musica della luce, Pascale Berthelot piano
An anthology of his most interesting solo piano music:
- Études boréales, 1990
- Cadenze, 1993
- Études australes, 2002-03
- Nachtmusik, 2008


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## Vaneyes

I have several still living contemporary composer favorites, who've composed for solo piano. However, I doubt if anything's been done in the 21st C. Anyway, WIGATI, I'll have a look-see and report back if there is anything. Thanks for asking.:tiphat:


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## hreichgott

^ That is some very interesting and sparse music there. Thanks for the Fedele recommendation.

Adding Howard Skempton to the list.
And Judith Weir to the list of people whose ensemble music I like but haven't really gotten into their solo piano works specifically.


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## dgee

James Dillon's Book of Elements is pretty good


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## hreichgott

Hey! The Skempton piano works are all classified as easy by Edition Peters! They may be coming soon to some piano students...


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## tortkis

These may be too sparse and too quiet, but I love these piano works very much. Austere music, with subtle lyricism.

Eva Maria Houben - Piano Music
abgemalt. zeichnungen für klavier (2009)
go and stop (2002)

Jürg Frey - Piano Music
Klavierstück 2 (2001)
Les tréfonds inexplorés des signes (24-35) (2007/9)

Jürg Frey - Pianist, Alone (1998-2004)


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## PetrB

Pēteris Vasks:
http://www.schott-music.com/shop/persons/featured/peteris-vasks/works/katur-1261762-keyboards-piano_harpsichord-piano_harpsichord_two_hands/

Music for a Summer Evening (2009)
Green Scenery 'Summer' (2008)

There are other solo piano pieces, the two above each run ca. a bit over a quarter hour.

I could swear I recall a Youtube link with a large scale set of solo piano pieces, really a very full album's worth, but that may have been a collection of several movements of a sort of ongoing project of a suite, possibly on or around 'the seasons.'

(The next earlier solo piano piece I found by him dates from 1995)

Seriously, imo, it is just too soon to limit the scope to only 21st century piano music, since it is just in a few days 2015 or you are then looking for only the newest music from the younger / youngest of composers.

P.s. This is not a mention of a favorite, but simply adding something I know of to the list of rep requested.


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## OlivierM

I quite like Karol Beffa and Jean-Luc Fafchamps.


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