# Favourite contemporary music specialists



## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

Who are your favourites? What recordings do you recommend? Have you seen any live? What are your local contemporary music ensembles? Who are your favourite conductors or musicians in the contemporary music scene? Who do you dislike and why?

I would be interested to see what people's opinions are, because it isn't all that often that I see threads about Klangforum Wien, Susanna Mälkki or "the best" interpreters of new music.


----------



## dgee (Sep 26, 2013)

Klangforum Wien have cool social media as well as being amazing (Beat Furrer's baby)! Talea are a cool and young ensemble. I've also heard very cool things about Boston Modern Orchestra Project - it's my dream really to have a cool orchestra putting on new and contemporary classic programmes but I live far, far away. Nic Hodges is amazing on piano always. Neue Vocalisten Stuttgart rate a mention for their singularly amazing technical achievements


----------



## science (Oct 14, 2010)

Well, now, first of all, I dare speak a few words in defense of Kronos Quartet. 

They don't suck. 

I'm scared to say more. I might sneak in some support for the likes of Gidon Kremer while I'm still flinching. 

More comfortably, I enjoy the pianism of Aimard when he explores more recent repertoire. 

But because most of the "new" music I get to consume comes in the form of recordings, I tend to think in terms of labels, and in particular Kairos, Tzadik, DG's 20/21 series, ECM, and to some degree BIS and even Hyperion. The latter, in particular gets away with putting out some stuff that could discredit a lesser label (the likes of Whitacre and Rutter). From most of those labels, and maybe even Sony, I will buy anything that looks interesting with confidence. Naxos does a fair bit of newish music, but I usually want to check the reviews first.


----------



## SimonNZ (Jul 12, 2012)

Ensemble Intercontemporain are gods. If I had a "bucket list" then seeing them live would be near the top.

The Arditti Quartet have also made an astonishing number of premiere recordings that surely must have made the composers proud.

more later


----------



## ptr (Jan 22, 2013)

SimonNZ said:


> Ensemble Intercontemporain are gods. If I had a "bucket list" then seeing them live would be near the top.
> 
> The Arditti Quartet have also made an astonishing number of premiere recordings that surely must have made the composers proud.


Seconded!

/ptr


----------



## Guest (Jan 27, 2015)

Being a newbie to this I think I can only wave a flag for Kim Kashkashian, a violist who seems to champion both the "new" and the "old".


----------



## science (Oct 14, 2010)

gog said:


> Being a newbie to this I think I can only wave a flag for Kim Kashkashian, a violist who seems to champion both the "new" and the "old".


As a heck of a lot of artists do and have always done! This is a very good example.

In my previous post I mentioned a couple violinists, and now we've had a violist, so I'll mention Queyras and we've got ourselves a string quartet to compete with the best of them.


----------



## Guest (Jan 27, 2015)

Quite a few performers have decided to devote their careers to contemporary music.*

Agata Zubel
Silje Marie Aker Johnsen
John Tilbury
Ostrava banda
Cleveland Percussion Ensemble
Amandinda Percussion Ensemble

But I noticed, going over my youtube channel, that the bulk of the concerts I've attended over the past decade have not featured people performing other people's music but composer/performers and improvisers.

Emmanuelle Gibello
Beatriz Ferreyra
Christine Groult
Jerome Noetinger
Lionel Marchetti
Robin Hayward
Andrea Neumann
Keith Rowe

And so on...

*After I typed this, I realized how absurd it was. I was thinking what a strange thing it was to have to qualify "music" as I did. But read that sentence without the adjective to see the absurdity!


----------



## science (Oct 14, 2010)

Does "Bang on a Can" count?


----------



## SilverSurfer (Sep 13, 2014)

My favourite: Ictus (Belgium), all recordings recommended, and seen live.
From Spain, saxophone quartet Sigma.
Conductor: José Ramón Encinar.

Others: from Italy, MDI Ensemble, Musiques Nouvelles and Bl!ndman (Belgium), Ensemble Modern (Germany), etc...


----------



## cjvinthechair (Aug 6, 2012)

Birmingham Contemporary Music Group (UK) !

They've taught/are teaching me a lot about music I didn't always appreciate too well !


----------



## ptr (Jan 22, 2013)

Peter Eötvös is atop of my personality list!

/ptr


----------



## science (Oct 14, 2010)

ptr said:


> Peter Eötvös is atop of my personality list!
> 
> /ptr


Knussen is good too.


----------



## ptr (Jan 22, 2013)

science said:


> Knussen is good too.


Indeed, I often seem to favour Composer-conductors, Eötvös, Furrer, Knussen. Salonen, etc..

/ptr


----------



## Guest (Jan 27, 2015)

ptr said:


> Peter Eötvös is atop of my personality list!


He is a pretty sweet guy, it's true. But my impression was "unassuming," so I was surprised to see him atop a personality list. But I only met him once, briefly, in a waiting room of the Chopin airport. He spoke very little English, and I speak no Hungarian.

So many languages, so little brain.


----------



## ptr (Jan 22, 2013)

some guy said:


> o many languages, so little brain.


A very sweet man, speaks fluent German so he is/was quite easy to engage in conversation (for me), met him several times in Gothenburg when he worked there! He did several "chamber" concerts with Ensemble Gageego (local band) that opened my eyes for many things!

/ptr


----------



## Guest (Jan 27, 2015)

Now _there's_ funny, ptr!

As I was typing out my response, I remembered trying to talk to Kutavičius after a premiere of his piece for eight cellos. Not very good. Then I heard him talking to some people later in German. Hah! So I went and thanked him _auf Deutsch._ That time, it went much better.

If I had only known that Peter speaks German, too. Crap!!

(I need to pay more attention to my surroundings.)


----------



## isorhythm (Jan 2, 2015)

I'll hear Aimard whenever he comes to town, if I can.

I don't know if Peter Serkin counts as a specialist, but he's also a favorite.


----------



## Fagotterdammerung (Jan 15, 2015)

I'll admit my experience is very provincial - literally. 

One of the few things I miss about living on Vancouver Island is regular _Aventa Ensemble_ concerts. A high level of playing - but also wide ranging musical selections not limited to a Canadian composer ghetto.

We have a similar group here in Vancouver, _Standing Wave_, but I find their programming less exciting, and there is a narrower set of chamber works they perform.

I'm trying to explore more local groups, but it's kind of hard to find listings as they tend to be all small scale and obviously can't do a lot of advertising.


----------



## tortkis (Jul 13, 2013)

Arditti Quartet is exceptional. I like the recent release _Pandora's Box_ (Saunders, Mason, Bedford, Zorn).

I think JACK Quartet is doing very good job. I was impressed with the recordings of the works of John Luther Adams and Ken Thomson. Dillon's No.6 on Donaueschinger Musiktage 2010 is also nice.

Quatuor Bozzini is wonderful: a compilation of miniature string quartets of Canadian composers, Tenney, Skempton, Jo Kondo. I ordered Cage's Four and Jürg Frey.

Sarah Cahill released recordings of nice contemporary piano works: Mamoru Fujieda, Kyle Gann, Harold Budd.

Sabine Liebner's Cage, Feldman, Wolff are very good too.


----------



## Albert7 (Nov 16, 2014)

ComposerOfAvantGarde said:


> Who are your favourites? What recordings do you recommend? Have you seen any live? What are your local contemporary music ensembles? Who are your favourite conductors or musicians in the contemporary music scene? Who do you dislike and why?
> 
> I would be interested to see what people's opinions are, because it isn't all that often that I see threads about Klangforum Wien, Susanna Mälkki or "the best" interpreters of new music.


Barbara Hannigan is awesome here:






and


----------

