# Best works of the last decade: 2010 - 2019



## Durendal (Oct 24, 2018)

I'm really curious as to what are considered the finest compositions of the very recent past. Unfortunately I cannot personally contribute any examples as I'm not familiar with new classical works.


----------



## Becca (Feb 5, 2015)

I have absolutely no idea of how one determines 'finest' (can it even be done?) and am sure that most responses will represent the poster's favourite. If one goes by the number of major orchestras that have programmed it (some more than once), I would suggest Hans Abrahamsen's _let me tell you_.


----------



## Trout (Apr 11, 2011)

I think you will find this fairly recent thread useful: Favorite works 2010-2019.

I don't have much to add to my lists since I haven't done much listening since then, except for one piece: Kurtág's stunning opera _Fin de Partie_ (2010-18).


----------



## Janspe (Nov 10, 2012)

_let me tell you_ is probably a work that many people would mention.

Thomas Adès' _Totentanz_ totally blew my mind when I heard it live in a concert a few years ago.

I also absolutely _adore_ Unsuk Chin's _Gougalōn_, which - if I'm not mistaken - was finished and premiered during the last decade.

But there are many, many more.


----------



## Becca (Feb 5, 2015)

Using the same criteria as my earlier post, perhaps George Benjamin's opera _Written on Skin_


----------



## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

There's a game running about favourite works from 2000 and later (years of completion included) - 300 compositions were nominated. The list is here: https://www.talkclassical.com/63375-game-nominations-2000-beyond-10.html#post1719299


----------



## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

My tastes are really very different from everyone else's I think because I don't like large scale music. So, for example, I would pick Occam's Ocean (Eliane Radigue)


----------



## Durendal (Oct 24, 2018)

Trout said:


> I think you will find this fairly recent thread useful: Favorite works 2010-2019.
> 
> I don't have much to add to my lists since I haven't done much listening since then, except for one piece: Kurtág's stunning opera _Fin de Partie_ (2010-18).


I must have missed seeing that thread. Sorry for the duplication.


----------



## Phil loves classical (Feb 8, 2017)

i have pretty conservative taste, so Lindberg's Cello Concerto or Maxwell Davies' Symphony 9. But then they're not anything special, and nothing that hasn't been done before.


----------



## Fabulin (Jun 10, 2019)

Williams' Star Wars sequel trilogy


----------



## larold (Jul 20, 2017)

Michael Daugherty’s Trail of Tears Flute Concerto


----------



## Enthusiast (Mar 5, 2016)

A lot depends on what rocks your boat. I assume that asking for the most recent means an interest in fairly avant garde music and perhaps younger composers (many of whom I don't know well enough). But sticking to composers who were already established before the last decade, I second Benjamin's Written on Skin and add his next opera Lessons in Love and Violence. Also Carter's Epigrams (for violin, cello and piano) and Dialogues II (piano and orchestra) and Two Controversies and a Conversation (piano, percussion, and chamber orchestra). I also second Abrahamsen's Let Me Tell You as a fresh but accessible piece that has been an enormous success. No doubt there are many more - ten years is a very short time to get to hear a work if you rely on recordings.


----------



## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

What about this, Laurence Crane's Tour de France Statistics? This is the sort of music which would get booed off the stage at Darmstadt.


----------



## Nereffid (Feb 6, 2013)

Can't say much about _finest_ or _best_, but I can say that my favourite is John Luther Adams's _Become Ocean_.


----------

