# Recommendations Please.



## lowgold (Jul 4, 2020)

Hello, 

I'm hoping someone can give me a bit of help with the direction my listening is taking. I need new composers to listen to and outside of all the big names I'm struggling for new composers. 

This is the music I really love

Bach - Busoni. I really like contrapuntal music but I'm looking for something a bit more modern. 

Beethoven - Late string quartets.

Brahms - String Sextets 




I' don't really go for big flashy stuff on the piano. I'm not a fan of Schumann or Liszt really, aside from the odd piece. I'm not much of a symphony type person either, I prefer chamber music, the odd concerto here and there. I would like something in a similiar vein to the pieces above but more modern and radical- from a contemporary perspective. I've listened to a bit of Sibelius and Smetana, which I really like but don't really know my way around their work. I'm willing to give anything a shot but I struggle with the completely atonal stuff, Schoenberg, Hindemith etc... 

Might be a big ask as I'm being quite vague but I will ask nevertheless!

Thanks in advance.


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## aioriacont (Jul 23, 2018)

I really recommend Bartok's string quartets

sorry, but in terms of contrapunctual music, I don't know if it ever got progressed after Bach's times. At least in classical. I would have to delve into jazz territory for this kind of recommendations, since improvisations in jazz usually feature counterpoint right in the face, as seen in Miles Davis second quintet and his electric era (albums like Bitches Brew).


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## jegreenwood (Dec 25, 2015)

Quartets of Debussy and Ravel. And Ravel's Trio.

More Brahms - the clarinet quinter.

And Schubert's string quintet.


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## UniversalTuringMachine (Jul 4, 2020)

"almost modern" chamber music masterpieces (still big names):
*Ravel Quartet
Debussy Quartet
Bartok Quartet 2nd and 4th
Borodin Quartet 2nd*

I left out Dvorak's sublime chamber music because they don't sound "modern" to me, but since you like Smetana, you should definitely check them out, especially:
*Quartet 12th American and 14th
Piano Quintet
Trio*

If you feeling more adventurous, you can go for:
*Messian Quartet for the End of Time
Shostakovitch Quartet 8th*

For 20th century contrapuntal piano work, you've got to listen to the highly inventive
*Shostakovitch 24 prelude and fugue *
*Kapustin 24 prelude and fugue* (if you are feeling jazzy)


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## Kjetil Heggelund (Jan 4, 2016)

I think you should read a bit and not be so hard on the famous composers so much. It's hard for me to imagine you're tired of the really famous ones when you haven't really heard many of their pieces. Also a tip: Listen to one piece 3 times before you decide if you really like it. You can focus on different aspects of the whole piece or none at all...Might be an interesting journey


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## MatthewWeflen (Jan 24, 2019)

Schubert's String Quartets! They're amazing pieces, and Brilliant sells a phenomenal set with splendid sound for cheap.






https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/8112508--schubert-complete-string-quartets


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## MarkW (Feb 16, 2015)

Just for yuks, try the Nielsen quartets. Especially the Fourth, titularly the last one, but not really -- which has a wonderful, almost random sounding first movement.


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

Go for the Ravel quartet. It's beautiful. And Arnie doesn't have to be a struggle. Nor Hindemith. He wrote loads of chamber music. Try the harp sonata.


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## tortkis (Jul 13, 2013)

lowgold said:


> Bach - Busoni. I really like contrapuntal music but I'm looking for something a bit more modern.


Aaron Andrew Hunt composes contrapuntal music in the style of Bach, using unusual meters (5/8, 17/16, 23/16, etc.) or non-12ET tunings (8ET, 13ET, 20ET, etc.)

Präludium und Fuga in G-Dur, in 5/8 und 7/8 (2019)

__
https://soundcloud.com/uz1kt3k%2Fpraludium-und-fuga-in-g-dur-in-58-und-78

Fugue In 9ET, in 7/8 (2015)

__
https://soundcloud.com/uz1kt3k%2Ffugue-in-9et-in-78


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## Rogerx (Apr 27, 2018)

lowgold said:


> Hello,
> 
> I'm hoping someone can give me a bit of help with the direction my listening is taking. I need new composers to listen to and outside of all the big names I'm struggling for new composers.
> 
> ...


Clear a a bright sunny day, I suggest you browse trough the games/ polls , every possible subject is dealt with.


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

lowgold said:


> ,
> 
> Bach - Busoni. I really like contrapuntal music but I'm looking for something a bit more modern.
> 
> .


I think you should try this CD


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

lowgold said:


> Beethoven - Late string quartets.


This is difficult because each of op 127-op 135 is different, and prima facie _sui generis_. So, in order to get a handle on it, let's just think of one of them, like op 131, with that impressive set of variations, and ask who since Beethoven has explored variations in string quartet form with just as much originality. Then the answer is easy.

I think you should listen to Pascal Dusapin's 7th quartet.


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## lowgold (Jul 4, 2020)

Thankyou so much for the replies! This has probably saved me a month of rummaging through spotify album after random album.


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## lowgold (Jul 4, 2020)

Double post sorry


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## pianozach (May 21, 2018)

lowgold said:


> Beethoven - Late string quartets.


*If you're a fan of Beethoven's last quartets, here's 10 suggestions

*
Franz *Schubert's* string quartet D. 810 ("*Death and the Maiden*")

Felix *Mendelssohn's* String Quartet No. 2

Johannes *Brahms*' three string quartets, 
. . . . op. 51 No. 1 (in C minor), 
. . . . op. 51 No. 2 (in A minor) and 
. . . . op. 67 (in B flat major)

Bedřich *Smetana's* String Quartet No. 1 in E minor, "_*From my Life*_",

Antonín *Dvořák's* String Quartets No. 9-14, 
. . . . particularly String Quartet No. 12 in F major, "_*American*_";
. . . . also No. 3 is an exceptionally long quartet (lasting 56 minutes)

Claude *Debussy* String Quartet in G minor, Op. 10 (1893)

Jean *Sibelius's* String Quartet in D minor, op. 56, "*Voces intimae*"

Maurice *Ravel's* String Quartet in F major

Leoš *Janáček's* two string quartets, 
. . . . String Quartet No. 1, "_*Kreutzer Sonata*_" (1923), inspired by Leo Tolstoy's novel The Kreutzer Sonata, itself named after Beethoven's Kreutzer Sonata; and
. . . . his second string quartet, _*Intimate Letters*_ (1928)

Arnold *Schoenberg's* four string quartets - 
. . . . No. 1 op. 7 (1904-05) 
. . . . No. 2 op. 10 (1907-08, noteworthy for its first ever inclusion of the human voice in a string quartet), 
. . . . No. 3 op. 30 (1927) and 
. . . . No. 4 op. 37 (1936)

.

*But if you want some really obscure, different, and unusual string quartets . . . . *

.

Shostakovich - String Quartet No. 8 in C minor, op. 110 (1960) 
György Ligeti - Second String Quartet (1968)
Brian Ferneyhough - six string quartets
Salvatore Sciarrino - 9 string quartets
Lachenmann's Grido (2001)

Wolfgang Rihm's 13 string quartets
György Ligeti's two string quartets, especially his Second String Quartet (1968)

.

That'll keep you busy for quite a while . . . .


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## lowgold (Jul 4, 2020)

Sorry I tried to delete this. Double post.


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## lowgold (Jul 4, 2020)

Wow pianozach. This really will keep me busy! Thankyou!


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## pianozach (May 21, 2018)

lowgold said:


> Wow pianozach. This really will keep me busy! Thankyou!


I appreciate that you were quite clear about what you do and don't like.

One of the string quartets I listed I find very difficult to listen to . . . . but I think you'll like it, maybe even love it.


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

> Bach - Busoni. I really like contrapuntal music but I'm looking for something a bit more modern.


Just about any recording of the _24 Preludes and Fugues_ by *Shostakovich*, or _Ludis tonalis_ by *Hindemith*.


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