# 1945-2018 - Your favourite five, and why.



## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

Post second world war until the present day - what are your favourite five compositions from this period - not necessarily in rank order - and could you explain why you picked them, please? 

What qualities do you find in them - what is their appeal? 

Talk about them - any details of your experience of these chosen pieces will be very welcome. 

Thank you in advance for any replies. :tiphat:


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## eugeneonagain (May 14, 2017)

Pretty ordinary 20th century fare:

Concerto for cello and orchestra in C minor (1948) - Mieczysław Weinberg

String Quartet 16 (1950) - Darius Milhaud

Symphony 4 (1988) - Witold Lutosławski.

String Quartet 7 (1960) - Shostakovich

Symphony 6 (1951) - Hilding Rosenberg

Cello Concerto 1 (1959) - Shostakovich

The appeal? Hard to say except in the case of the first selection which is so lyrical and beautiful I don't believe anyone could resist it.


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## Jacck (Dec 24, 2017)

Schnittke - String Quartet No. 3
Penderecki - Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima
Lutoslawski - Symphony no. 3
Carter - String Quartet 1
Henze - Symphony 7
Bacewicz - Piano Quintet No.1
Hindemith - When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd (probably the most beautiful composition by Hindemith)
Braga Santos - Symphony No. 4 (wonderful music, has a film music quality to it)
Rautavaara - Concerto for Birds and Orchestra “Cantus Arcticus”
Vine - Piano Concerto

I appologie that it is 10 and not five, but I was lazy to think too hard which compositions to sort out.


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## Bulldog (Nov 21, 2013)

Feeling lazy today:

Shostakovich:
Preludes and Fugues, op. 87 (1950/51)
Symphony no. 10 (1953)
Symphony no. 13 (1962)
String Quartet no. 8 (1960)
Cello Concerto no. 1 (1959)


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## Gordontrek (Jun 22, 2012)

Shostakovich- Symphony 10- I think his 5th is THE symphony of the 20th century but this is a close second. Very powerful.
Ligeti- Hungarian Rock- What can I say? It's a jam. 
John Adams- On the Transmigration of Souls- extremely moving piece of music, one of the most powerful of our time. 
Penderecki- Threnody- One of the few "atmospheric" pieces that ever clicked with me
John Williams- Star Wars: A New Hope- arguably the most memorable symphonic work of the 20th century, and I love it. Fight me!


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

Prokofiev: Symphony No. 7
Shostakovich: Piano Concerto No. 2
Hovhaness: Violin Concerto No. 2
Martinů: Piano Concerto No. 5
Rautavaara: Piano Concerto No. 1 

Detailed explanation: I like concertos, plus I like Prokofiev .


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## Enthusiast (Mar 5, 2016)

Oh dear, from that period I don't think I could even manage my favourite five Britten pieces or my favourite five Ligeti pieces or my favourite five Carter pieces! The period you give is so long and made up (for me) of at least three very different periods.


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

Enthusiast said:


> Oh dear, from that period I don't think I could even manage my favourite five Britten pieces or my favourite five Ligeti pieces or my favourite five Carter pieces! The period you give is so long and made up (for me) of at least three very different periods.


:tiphat: Sorry if I gave the wrong impression. 
I just want five pieces of music that you like that fall (loosely) within this time frame.

(I started the thread because I find it very interesting when people talk about the music they love and explain the appeal that it holds for them. Since most of what I listen to predates the twentieth century, I am hoping to gain some insight and new experience.)

Your favourite pieces can be by different composers or the same one(s), and they can all come from a particular part of the time span mentioned in the OP or have more 'spread' in time.

The only thing the five need to have in common is that you like them.

If something you love was composed in 1942, even - no problem! 

Clairvoyants are encouraged to tell me their favourites from 2019.

I'm really just trying to find out what people like and why from the mid-twentieth century to the present day, avoiding the adjectival m-word, so that I can try a few different flavours.


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## dismrwonderful (May 5, 2013)

I'm exploring this thread looking for composers I've never heard of or explored. Mieczysław Weinberg and Hilding Rosenberg were totally unfamiliar to me. I'll look into them. Thanks.

Dan


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

dismrwonderful said:


> I'm exploring this thread looking for composers I've never heard of or explored. Mieczysław Weinberg and Hilding Rosenberg were totally unfamiliar to me. I'll look into them. Thanks.
> 
> Dan


Same here!

:cheers: And thanks to everyone who's posted so far, 'lazy' or not!


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## Becca (Feb 5, 2015)

I made a list, I checked it twice ... then I removed anything which wasn't absolutely after WW2 and still I had 8 pieces, none of which I would pick over another. There is probably another 8 or more which could well have been on the list ... Britten, Walton, Martinu, Tubin

Peter Maxwell Davies - Orkney Wedding with Sunrise
Jennifer Higdon - City Scape
Douglas Lilburn - Song of Islands
George Lloyd - Symphonic Mass
James Macmillan - Piano Cto. #2
Edmund Rubbra - Symph. #5
Ralph Vaughan Williams - Symph. #8
Hans Abrahamsen - let me tell you


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## senza sordino (Oct 20, 2013)

I can't narrow down my choices to twenty, and certainly not five. Here are six that are fairly different 

Britten Four Sea Interludes (1945) from the opera Peter Grimes. The Four Sea Interludes are just so damn exciting, they evoke drama and tension. My heart races when I hear this music.

Shostakovich Violin Concerto no 1 (written in 1948 but not premiered until 1955 after the death of Stalin) The cadenza at the end of the third movement passacaglia is fantastic and it's terrific how it goes right into the finale, the wild ride that is the finale.

Villa Lobos Guitar Concerto (1951) I love guitar music, and this is one fantastic concerto. Balance can be problematic with an orchestra and a quiet guitar but this music works. Written for Andres Segovia.

Michael Tippett Symphony no 4 (1977) Birth to death, full of life in between. Chaotic in places, serenity in others.

Lutosławski Symphony no 3 (1983) Aleatory and order interspersed. Very interesting music.

Steve Reich Different Trains (1988) I like a lot of his music, I wasn't quite sure which to choose, I chose chamber music because there wasn't any in my short list here.

Ask tomorrow and I'll have another list.


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## Kjetil Heggelund (Jan 4, 2016)

Only 5 then...
1. Piano Concerto by Alfred Schnittke. This has become one of my favorite pieces of music. It starts wonderfully tender, and turns after a while into a monster! I loved it the first time I heard it in ca. 1990. I was an introverted nerd, was helplessly in love and liked dissonance.
2. Guitar sonata by Edison Denisov. By the modern composer I like the most. First mvt is Bach time-travels to 1981, 2nd is all of Denisov in a guitar lullaby, 3rd mvt is Denisov with a souvenir from Spain (and Bach quote). I will play this live eventually, hopefully in February.
3. Symphony no. 3 by Peter Maxwell Davies. Kind of like Mahler if he went total modernist. I could have said no. 10, but no. 3 has been played more often.
4. Nocturnal by Benjamin Britten! The most fantastic piece for guitar solo, that starts off very distant and evolves like a strange dream into a drifting chase that ends in "Come, Heavy Sleep" by John Dowland.
5. Towards the Sea by Toru Takemitsu. So dreamy and other-worldly. Loved it from the start!


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## joen_cph (Jan 17, 2010)

Very interesting that Lutoslawski symphonies 3+4 are getting so much promotion. 
I have considered those in an attempt to a Top-5 too. 
Maybe it is partly because of their relatively serene or almost lyrical expression, compared to the often more conflict-picturing music of our times ...


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Maybe not my top 5, but darned close to it, and perhaps a bit less often chosen by others.

Prokofiev, Symphony No. 6
Shostakovich, Symphonies 9, 15, Cello Concerto #2
Adams, The Dharma at Big Sur

(excludes chamber and solo piano music…)

I noticed a coincidence in my list. Prokofiev’s 6th and Shostakovich’s 9th symphonies both led to their composers’ condemnation by the Party and subsequent penalties. Shostakovich made the required self-criticism and nonetheless suffered the loss of his professorship at the Conservatory (and its paycheck) and the withdrawal of many of his works from the active repertory. Still, he was soon partially forgiven so that Stalin could have him flown to New York for an important cultural conference. Even so, he composed his best works “for the desk drawer” until Stalin’s death five years later.

Prokofiev, older and already ill, was not so compliant. While being criticized at the Composer’s Union meeting, he pointedly sat backwards in his chair, facing the rear wall of the chamber. I don’t know that he ever apologized. He still wrote some more music, but not much. He died on the same day as Stalin in 1953.


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## Prodromides (Mar 18, 2012)

1) Andre Jolivet's *Troisième Symphonie* (1964) 



2) Maurice Ohana's *Livre des Prodiges* (1979) 



3) Meyer Kupferman's *Jazz Symphony* (1988) 



4) Toru Takemitsu's *A Flock Descends Into the Pentagonal Garden* (1977) 



5) Arne Nordheim's *Spur* (1975) 




My faves hover around the late 1970s, as one can notice, but I truly love the music from the 3 entire decades of the '50s, '60s, & '70s.
Because this is a top 5 list, I had to leave off many other faves by Scelsi, Roberto Gerhard, Dutilleux, Luis de Pablo, Jon Leifs, Luigi Dallapiccola & Erik Bergman plus 3 works [Les Perses ('61), Le Livre des Katuns ('77) & La Noche Triste ('89)] by the composer who inspired my user name - Jean Prodromidès.


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## joen_cph (Jan 17, 2010)

Prodromides said:


> 1) Andre Jolivet's *Troisième Symphonie* (1964)
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Nice to see your again, Prodromides ... :tiphat:


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## Trout (Apr 11, 2011)

Reich: Music for 18 Musicians
My all-time favorite piece of music. It is a transcendent, gamelan-inspired journey through 11 different chords. Without hearing it, on paper you may think that there would be no way that this piece should work. It mainly consists of an hour of a simple rhythmic pulse on the downbeats with overlaying fragmented "melodies". And these melodies just kind of repeat over and over and over and over again. But they slowly build upon themselves like snowballs rolling down a mountainside creating something magical. The piece entrances me like no other, as I become lost in the beautiful timbres and comforting pulses. For that single short hour, I simply feel suspended in time and space.

Messiaen: Turangalila-Symphonie
Just like my first hearing of _The Rite of Spring_, this piece really opened my eyes (and ears) to the possibilities of modern music. There are motifs and melodies but they're exuberantly nightmarish. The ondes martenot creates a completely alien soundscape, which seems to turn from gleeful to violent and back again on a dime. It may be a bit overindulgent and sprawling in parts, but I love every note of it.

Grisey: Les espaces acoustiques
One of the first examples of spectralism, this is a fantastic exploration of timbres, starting with that of a single viola and ending with the full orchestra. Basically, the composer used a computer to break down the timbre of various notes on each instrument into "spectra", which is a kind of like a sonic fingerprint that identifies the note and instrument. Grisey would then use these spectra to see, in a more "objective" way, how to orchestrate and form a piece. And the results are surprisingly compelling. By exploring timbre as if it were harmony, this piece caused a bit of a paradigm shift within me as to how to appreciate different types of modern/contemporary music.

Glass: Einstein on the Beach
A watershed work in minimalism and modern opera. It's hypnotic in a way similar to the Reich, but more hard-edged and uncompromising. There really isn't a plot, rather just tons of symbols and an interesting libretto to say the least. I honestly have no idea what it's about, if it's even really about anything, but the music and set pieces really resonate with me.

Ligeti: Etudes
Just because this set of pieces is for the piano doesn't mean that it's any less ambitious than others on this list. The variety encompassed by these 18 pieces is particularly astounding. And yet most of them have a percussive energy that is simply fascinating and addicting.


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## Prodromides (Mar 18, 2012)

joen_cph said:


> Nice to see your again, Prodromides ... :tiphat:


Yes, nice to see you still around these parts, too, joen_cph.

Couldn't resist posting in this thread on my favorite era of compositions.


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## MarkW (Feb 16, 2015)

I can't easily list, but I will put in a plug for Michael Tippett -- who wrote a lot of uneven music, but his best holds up really well..

From his more "conservative" period (mid '50s - early '60s) indispensible works include: Piano Conerto. Second Symphony, Fantasia Concertante on a Theme by Corelli (actually, Ingelou, you should start with this because of its Baroque roots), and the opera The Midsummer Marriage.


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

Wow - what a lot of really great posts, full of interest. 

Please don't get hung up on the 'five' bit in the OP - I had been going to start off with 10 but thought it would be more manageable for people (and for me trying out!) if people just mentioned five, especially if it gave them more time and energy to write about their response in detail. 

But just post one item - or a hundred - if it suits you better!

A lot of composer names to conjure with here, and so many interesting things said. 

Thank you, thank you, everyone! :tiphat:


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## tdc (Jan 17, 2011)

Partch - Delusion of the Fury
Takemitsu - From Me Flows What You Call Time
Reich - The Desert Music
Rodrigo - Invocation et danse
(A tie) - Gubaidulina - Viola Concerto and Schnittke - Piano Concerto

I love all these works because they are masterfully composed, challenging, yet still essentially tonal. 

I'll just a say a few words about the pieces:

The Desert Music I find hypnotic and it transports me to an engaging and exciting sound world. 

Rodrigo is a composer I connect with deeply, he certainly had to be represented here. In general I love his use of harmony, and find his music beautiful, haunting, tasteful and firmly grounded in tradition and classicism. 

The Partch, Takemitsu and Gubaidulina pieces all have a spiritual, ritualistic feel I find very inspired and they represent a direction in music I find spiritually fulfilling and uplifting relative to a large percentage of newer classical I perceive as sounding nihilistic, uninspired and ugly. 

The Schnittke Concerto is just a powerful cathartic dark masterpiece by a master composer.


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

MarkW said:


> I can't easily list, but I will put in a plug for Michael Tippett -- who wrote a lot of uneven music, but his best holds up really well...


A fine and very popular Tippett work, but outside our time frame here, from 1939: Concerto for Double String Orchestra.


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## Guest (Oct 28, 2018)

I don't know if I would be able to narrow it down to five favourites, but I can probably come up with five that have really made an impact on me, or perhaps major discoveries for me that influenced how I listen to music.

Ligeti: Chamber Concerto
One of Ligeti's finest works, it was probably one of the first pieces that introduced me to some of the big 'classics' of the second half of the twentieth century (people like Ligeti, Stockhausen, Boulez, Xenakis) when I was about 13 years old.

Boulez: _Répons_
This is actually just my favourite piece of music. It has pretty much everything. Great solo and orchestral writing and really effective use of live electronics gives this piece a sound like no other piece has. It covers a very broad scope of moods, ideas, textures, speeds, dynamics, more than most other Boulez works I think. It's actually not the first piece by Boulez that first hooked me in; that would be _Dérive I._

Lachenmann: _Mouvement_
Probably my _other_ favourite composer at the moment and my favourite piece of his. Not many people have done better than Lachenmann in writing evocative and extraordinarily colourful compositions employing a huge array of unusual sounds since this piece.

Liza Lim: _The Navigator_
This used to be up on youtube but I'm pretty sad that it has been taken down since I listened to it all. The first contemporary opera that got me hooked on contemporary opera. Lim's music has a bizarre, intensely melodic flow to it and she really seems to make her melodies sound somewhat organic and alive more than many other composers these days. I love it. Wish I could hear this piece again!

Anthony Pateras: _Chromatophore_
Extended technique extravaganza for amplified string octet (2v, 2vl, 2vlc, 2db), this is a piece I heard in a concert live when I was 12 and more than any other piece it inspired me to want to compose music.


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## Haydn70 (Jan 8, 2017)

Here are three favorites...favorites because they are *beautiful *:


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## D Smith (Sep 13, 2014)

Here are five favourites of mine; there are many more.

Durufle - Requiem (1948)
Shostakovich - Symphony No. 15 (1971)
Stockhausen - Gesang der Jünglinge (1955)
Ligeti - Atmospheres (1961)
Hovhaness - Mysterious Mountain (1955)

All these pieces moved me when I first heard them and still do, although in very different ways. The Durufle is the most beautiful work I have ever heard.


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## Dirge (Apr 10, 2012)

William SCHUMAN: Symphony No. 6 (1948)
· Ormandy/Philadelphia Orchestra [Columbia '53]




Depending on how much I've had to drink, I variously associate this unrelievedly grim and tense work (which is cast more or less in the form of a passacaglia with seven variations) with the concrete and steel, Dow Jones 30 Industrials, pave-paradise-and-put-up-a-parking-lot urban underbelly of America. I don't know that Schuman had New York City (or any city) in mind when he wrote the Sixth, but I can't hear the work without relating it to the unlikely Gotham triumvirate of _Quiet City_, _On the Waterfront_, and _A Symphony of Three Orchestras_.

Alberto GINASTERA: Violin Concerto (1963)
· Accardo, Bonaventura/Hopkins Center Orchestra [Dynamic '68]




I'm the only known fan of this Paganini-haunted pre-postmodern serial nightmare of a concerto. It's laid out in three main sections: I. an extended cadenza and a set of bold studies; II. an adagio wherein the violinist is pitted against various small combinations of soloists dispatched from the orchestra; III. a skittering fantastical scherzo that really is haunted by Paganini. The work was written for the NYPO, who gave the premiere in 1963 with Bernstein at the helm and Ricci as soloist. That performance was a great success by all accounts, but the work just hasn't caught on in the 55 years since. If I had to venture a guess as to why, I'd guess that the work's sheer difficulty and rehearsal demands, its dark and tense serial atmosphere, and its undisguised variation/study design are the reasons for its unpopularity and rarity in concert. Ricci made a recording of the Concerto with some Mexican orchestra, but it's not good. The performance here, however, is surprisingly good given the use of an amateur orchestra in a live setting. (The Hopkins Center Orchestra is none other than the Dartmouth Symphony Orchestra, which is a combination of Dartmouth students and community musicians.) Bonaventura (who, as pianist, has made some fine Scarlatti sonata recordings, among others) was a good friend and ardent supporter of Ginastera, so I suspect that he rehearsed the bejesus out of the orchestra-and the presence of a world-class guest soloist probably didn't hurt the orchestra's (or Bonaventura's) motivation. The live 1968 recorded sound is also surprisingly good.

Dmitri SHOSTAKOVICH: String Quartet No. 13 (1970)
· Shostakovich Quartet [Olympia '80]




· Beethoven Quartet [Melodiya '71]




String Quartet No. 13 is an uncomfortable tonal-serial hybrid (in B-flat minor) cast in one long morphing arch of death-obsessed grimness and grotesquery revolving around the viola. The grimly subdued outer sections enclose a rather mocking and derisive dance of death for arthritic skeletons (the sick Shostakovich giving Death the finger, I should think). A number of groups provide the requisite focus and concentration to pull off this work, but it's the Shostakovich Quartet that best relates the various sections and ties everything together, and it does so in the most fluid and continuous (least episodic) way. The Beethoven Quartet's instruments are strung with the raw nerves of your dead ancestors, and its piercing playing penetrates straight to the spine like fingernails scraping a blackboard-it ain't pretty, but it's pretty compelling.

Elliott CARTER: _A Symphony of Three Orchestras_ (1976)
· Boulez/NYPO [CBS/Sony '77]




This is yet another work in which Carter divvies up his resources and variously juxtaposes or pits the resulting sub-forces against one another. In this case, he divvies up one big orchestra into three little orchestras of differing constitution and assigns each its very own set of four movements. Carter choreographs things so that each orchestra plays a movement in turn, with each movement beginning some time before the preceding movement ends. The result, then, is a continuous, overlapping twelve-movement work. This allows for a good deal of variety and complexity without too much density. Indeed, textures are often quite transparent, and even when they aren't, when the music is relatively busy and dense, the orchestration is such that a focused listener can discern most any and every voice through the din, giving the illusion of transparency.

The Symphony is slowly dramatic in its prevailing work-long descent from high pitch to low, and there are many affecting solos, some downright whistleable (if you're a very very good whistler), that emerge throughout, the opening trumpet call being the most conspicuous of them. In fact, that very trumpet call is the single most beautiful episode I've encountered in any Elliott Carter work-yes, you read right: I used "beautiful" and "Elliott Carter" in the same sentence. It was inspired by Hart Crane's description of a sea gull over Brooklyn Bridge, and it sounds a bit like the trumpet part from _Quiet City_ as played by a trumpeter on an acid bender.

György KURTÁG: _Kafka Fragments_ (1986)
· Csengery & Keller [Hungaroton '90]




Had Alban Berg written an Expressionist opera about Franz Kafka, shredded the score into a thousand fragments, cherry picked the forty most poignant of them-those containing only the nth degree of the climaxes & anticlimaxes, the absolute emotional and psychological highs & lows-handed them to Anton Webern for paring down and distillation for soprano and violin, and then enlisted Pablo Picasso to help arrange them into a sort of sketchy cubist collage/portrait of Kafka … it might have ended up something like György Kurtág's _Kafka Fragments_.

These forty fragments, which range from ten seconds to several minutes in length, set "snatches of text drawn from Kafka's letters, diary entries, and notebooks," each providing a brief but telling little glimpse into a different facet of the writer's psyche. Rather than providing a complete portrait, then, Kurtág provides only the crucial elements, the highlights of the highlights, and relies on the listener to infer that what's implied/intimated/insinuated and to flesh out the sketchy portrait in his/her mind. Superficially, _Kafka Fragments_ sounds like a cross between Arnold Schoenberg's _Pierrot lunaire_ and Igor Stravinsky's _L'Histoire du soldat_ that's been ruthlessly pared down to the bone. The soprano is as much dramatic actress and storyteller as singer per se, and the violinist must express/imply more with less than in any work I know.


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## Becca (Feb 5, 2015)

Becca said:


> I
> Peter Maxwell Davies - Orkney Wedding with Sunrise
> Jennifer Higdon - City Scape
> Douglas Lilburn - Song of Islands
> ...


At the time that I posted this I was not able to go into detail as to why these were included, so herewith some notes.
With perhaps one exception (Abrahamsen) all of these pieces fall into the (mostly) melodic 20th century mainstream, and even that exception is not far removed.

Abrahamsen
Song cycle for orchestra and soprano (2014). I am not quite sure what about this is so compelling other than it is! The fascinating orchestration, the fantastic vocal line which (not surprisingly) makes the most of Barbara Hannigan's amazing voice.

Lilburn
A tone poem for orchestra. Lilburn, a New Zealander, was a student of RVW but one who was very influenced by Sibelius. A perfect musical description of NZ.

Lloyd
A non-liturgical setting of the Latin Mass from 1993. Very much in the English choral tradition of Elgar, RVW, Rubbra etc. A delight.

Davies
Written to a 1985 Boston Pops commission, this work for orchestra and bagpipes depicts a riotous celebrations after a wedding, complete with the dancing and a band that shows the effects of the free-flowing whiskey!

Higdon
A 2002 Atlanta Symphony commission depicting various images and aspects of Atlanta. I know that many modernists look down their noses at Higdon and her music as being a throwback but WTF, it works and is enjoyable - what more matters?

MacMillan
This piece was started as a 1999 string quintet but after being approached by the choreographer, Christopher Wheeldon, was redone piano and string orchestra for a New York City Ballet commission. MacMillan subsequently added the last two movements. You can get an excellent idea of the piece by this quote from a review "_...the lusty violin reel that launches [the last movement] acquires an increasingly desperate energy as it hurtles giddily towards the piano's unhinged, unnerving final flourish._"

Rubbra
From 1947, probably Rubbra's lightest symphony and least contrapuntal. It is the kind of piece that after finishing it, you want to go back and start again.

RVW
RVW's next to last symphony from 1956. What can you say about work that describes the first movement as "seven variations in search of a theme." and the last as using "all the 'phones and 'spiels known to the composer"?

One other piece which I should have included here...
William Alwyn - Lyra Angelica - A 1954 concerto for harp and strings. Gorgeous.


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## Joe B (Aug 10, 2017)

I'll give it a go with 5 choral works:

*John Rutter's "Requiem" (1985)*
Written in memory of his father, this is a Requiem filled with hope and optimism. It has become a favorite of many choral groups. Rutter is not afraid to give his works wonderful melodies, and virtually every movement of his "Requiem" is a standout.

*Paul Mealor's "Stabat Mater" (2008)*
Written after the passing of his grandmother, Mealor wrote his "Stabat Mater" as a vehicle to come out of his grief and depression. This is an incredible work. It starts out with the choir singing acapella, very softly for the first two movements. The third movement is a rousing combination of choir and strings with a driving rhythm that plays with the dynamic capabilities of the choir and string players.

*Kim Arnesen's "Magnificat" (2010)*
I'll let Arnesen describe this: "Magnificat is a song of praise about one of the Bible's greatest wonders: the angel Gabriel visiting Mary with the message that she will be the mother of God's son. In this work I have tried to express what a young, poor woman must have felt on receiving such a message: wonder, devotion, gratitude, joy, humility, hope and compassion. God has a heart for the poor, and when God chose a poor woman to be the mother of his Son, it says something about a bottom-up view of the world. My Magnificat is therefore a prayer for the sick, the poor, a song for help and hope for those who are struggling."

*Will Todd's "Ode to a Nightingale" (2011)*
A musical setting of John Keat's poem "Ode to a Nightingale". This is a wonderful, pulsating piece of music that swells, builds, and then blossoms like a fountain; not just once or twice, but many times throughout the piece. This work is an emotional roller coaster: cathartic and spiritually restorative.

*Rebecca Dale's "Requiem for my Mother" (2018)*
Like Rutter's "Requiem", this is full of hope and optimism. A beautiful piece of music that moves from the angelic to a driving, rhythmic motif in the 8th movement reminiscent of Orff's "O Fortuna". Like several of the other works I've listed, this is a deeply personal composition from the composer.

These five works are my current favorite choral works. They are lyrical, beautiful, and just bowl me over.


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## Phil loves classical (Feb 8, 2017)

Shostakovich's String Quartet 15 - maybe the most emotional 20th century work for me.

Arnold's Symphony 7 - Fascinating and stirring.

Rosenman's Lord of the Rings Score - the first modern music I heard and liked.

Henze's Symphony 7 

Messiaen's Chronochromie


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## Enthusiast (Mar 5, 2016)

Ingélou said:


> :tiphat: Sorry if I gave the wrong impression.
> I just want five pieces of music that you like that fall (loosely) within this time frame.
> 
> (I started the thread because I find it very interesting when people talk about the music they love and explain the appeal that it holds for them. Since most of what I listen to predates the twentieth century, I am hoping to gain some insight and new experience.)
> ...


Well, OK, but the best I can come up with are five or so favourite composers from that period (and to be honest my choice in a week's time would be different and will certainly have changed in a year) but I would want to choose several works for each.

_*Britten*_. Why? Because so much of his music is highly effective and always very fresh despite his working almost exclusively to produce music (operas, song cycles, orchestral and chamber pieces) that works in ways that are "traditional" and as convincingly great as the greatest of the past. No other composer from this period achieved this to anything like the same degree.
_*Ligeti*_. Why? So much invention, such attractive ideas, such interesting and appealing new directions for music.
_*Lutoslawski*_. Why? Again, new directions and sounds - making music that works in new ways. Aside from a few early works you don't go to Lutoslawski to be moved or inspired in the same way as the music that came earlier. 
_*Birtwistle*_. Why? Strikingly new and often very inspired and exciting.
_*Kurtag*_. Why? What he does with the possibilities of music for small groups is so fascinating and rewarding. Once you are hooked, you are hooked.
_*Carter*_. A giant who spans the whole period and wrote so many deeply rewarding and wonderful pieces.

There - six already - and I already regret not having space for Boulez, Gubaidulina, Schnittke, Benjamin and a whole raft of contemporary composers who are more new to me but who I am loving getting to know.

And I haven't even thought about composers who I see as belonging to an earlier period but who produced major masterpieces in the period delineated in the OP - composers like Stravinsky, Prokofiev and Shostakovich.

Also, I haven't mentioned a giant - Messiaen - a composer I spent a long time not getting or liking but who I am now spending quite a lot of enjoyable time with.

I am still quite new to exploring the music of this period - especially the later part - and know I will be spending a lot of time over the coming months and years discovering more.


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## Ras (Oct 6, 2017)

*1941: Messiaen: Quartet to the End of Time*
Because it captures the suffering and madness of war and promises peace. It is a musical prelude of what is to come.

*1946: Richard Strauss: Metamorphoses for 23 solo strings (Karajan on DG)
1948: Richard Strauss: 4 last songs (Netrebko/Barenboim on DG)*
Because for me they are the last authentic Romantic works in music history.

*Shostakovich: String Quartet #15 (Sorrel Quartet on Chandos, Borodin's Melodiya rec.)*
As Phil loves classical already said it is the most emotionally intense work written after WW2. It's a requiem without voices. The only piece that rivals it in sorrowful intensity is Gorecki's 3rd symphony.

*Shostakovich: Violin Sonata opus 134 (Daniel Hope on Nimbus or the composer's own recording with David Oistrach on violin) *
Because the second movements never fails to blow my brains out! (Not sure that is really a recommendation).

*Terry Riley's "In C" (Paul Hillier on Dacapo)* because it sounds just like Steve Reich's "Music for 18 Musicians"
*Steve Reich's "Music for 18 Musicians" (Reich's own ensemble on Nonesuch and ECM)* because it sounds just like Terry Riley's "In C"

*1978: John Adams "Grand Pianola Music" for piano, choir and orchestra. *
Because it has the same impertinent annoying unrelenting energetic forward drive that you only get from a school boy with ADHD. - And yet it has lyrical qualities at the same time - alternating between party music, serious music and "ironic" or sardonic music.

*1977: Pärt: "Fratras" and "Cantus In Memory of Benjamin Britten".*

*Gavin Bryars: All the works on the "After the Requiem" album from ECM - especially the work for saxophone quartet.

Gavin Bryars Piano concerto "Solway Canal" (for piano, choir and orchestra) - I only have the world premiere recording from Naxos.*

Two pieces I don't know well, but like so far are:

*1994: Rautavaara's 7th symphony "Angel of Light" (Segarstam on Ondine)*
*
and from 1982: Poul Ruders: "Manhattan Abstraction" for symphony orchestra, (Michael Schonwandt on Point classics).
*


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## EchoEcho (Jan 31, 2016)

Some personal faves:

Franco Alfano: Piano Quintet in Ab (1945)
Alan Rawsthorne: Practical Cats (1954)
Borys Lyatoshynsky: Grazhyna, Op. 58 (1955)
Vladimir Jurowski: Russian Painters (1956)
Geirr Tveitt: Concerto No.2 for Hardanger Fiddle and Orchestra, Op.252 (1965)
Einojuhani Rautavaara: Concerto for Birds & Orchestra, Op. 61 (1972)
John Adams: Grand Pianola Music (1982)
Tan Dun: Internet Symphony "Eroica" (2009)


Why? Why not! If it sounds good, it is good!


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## Simon Moon (Oct 10, 2013)

Post 1945 to the present is, by far, the period I listen to the most. The VAST majority of my collection falls into this category.

So, it is extra tough for me to pick only 5 pieces. 

Elliott Carter - Variations for Orchestra (1955) 
Krzysztof Penderecki - Violin Concerto No. 2 Metamorphosen (1992)
Joan Tower - Concerto for Orchestra (1991)
Toru Takemitsu - From Me Flows What You call Time (1990)
Magnus Lindberg - Sculpture (2005)

As with all lists of this type, ask me again next week, and this list could be completely different. 

Pieces by: Luciano Berio, Einojuhani Rautavaara, Ligeti, Thomas Ades, Steve Reich, Sofia Gubaidulina, and many others would make the list.


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## Torkelburger (Jan 14, 2014)

Stravinsky - _Orpheus_
Stravinsky - _Threni_
Schoenberg - _String Trio_
Schoenberg - _A Survivor From Warsaw_
Walton - _Symphony No. 2_

Shostakovich symphonies and quartets (as well as Prokofiev, Henze symphonies) were already mentioned and I wanted to suggest something different. The Walton symphony hardly anyone knows about and it is one of my favorite symphonies of the last half of the 20th century. It's truly a landmark piece in the 20th cent. English repertoire. English conservatism at its most modern (at that time). The Schoenberg pieces are some of the finest he ever wrote. When I think of _Orpheus_ I think of classic Stravinsky with one of the most beautiful openings in all of 20th cent. music. _Threni_ is Stravinsky at his finest twelve-tone technical abilities. The great thing about this piece and his other 12-tone masterpieces are that you can always tell it's him. Even though it's 12-tone music, it always sounds like Stravinsky. That is part of his genius.


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## larold (Jul 20, 2017)

I agree with earlier commentary that the period is so broad making it difficult to select only 5. Here are 5:

Rautavaara Cantus Arcticus (1972) for its Sibelian worldview attached to modernity and tape bird sounds
W. Schuman Violin Concerto (1959) for severity and virtuosity
Khachaturian Spartacus ballet (1950) for old world music with 20th century appeal
Shostakovich Symphony 10 (1953) for its portrait of Stalin
Rautavaara Angel of Dusk (1980), a spooky concerto for double bass on the named entity

Also should mention the great fun of Khachaturian's Symphony No. 3 (1947)


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

Ingélou said:


> Wow - what a lot of really great posts, full of interest.
> 
> Please don't get hung up on the 'five' bit in the OP - I had been going to start off with 10 but thought it would be more manageable for people (and for me trying out!) if people just mentioned five, especially if it gave them more time and energy to write about their response in detail.
> 
> ...


Will repeat again that the small number was chosen so that it would be easier for posters *to explain the appeal* of their chosen works so that those of us who don't know the music of this 'modern' period would have something to guide us and help us to understand.

The 'modern' era in music is often defined as being from 1890 onwards, but I chose post World War II because 1890-1910 just doesn't feel very modern to me. 
But please don't bother too much about the dates - if you want to choose music written between the world wars, for example, then go ahead.

I'm very grateful to learn a few names. But it's what you say *about* your choices that is so fascinating and also useful (as far as I'm concerned.) 

I think the thread is winding down now, but I'm very appreciative of the way it's gone.

Thanks again to everyone who's posted - it must have taken some of you ages, and there are some really interesting reads here. :tiphat:


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## Kiki (Aug 15, 2018)

Much as I love the modern music, there is plenty of beautiful music, soul-searching music, mesmerising music, devastating music, but I often find myself craving for _happy_, _uplifting_ music, so here's my pick, Michael Torke's Color Music. It consists of five movements,

Green - Exuberant. I feel younger!
Purple - Humourous. Reminds me of the old days when a big job was finished I could afford to be witty about it.
Ecstatic Orange - On steroid… in fact I'm wondering what Mr. Torke had been smoking.
Ash - Happy-go-lucky, stay cheerful, despite a darker undertone. My favourite movement. Feels so relevant to modern day life, in a positive way.
Bright Blue Music - Festive, waltzing in open air, champagne in hand, peace of mind arrives.

It should be easy to find these movements on youtube for sampling. You might react differently though.


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## isorhythm (Jan 2, 2015)

Not necessarily absolute favorites, but five that come to mind:

Igor Stravinsky, Mass (1948) - Stravinsky intended this piece for liturgical use, and it has a very particular meditative quality unlike any other piece I can think of. It's very beautiful but in an impersonal or unemotional way, going through the text relatively quickly, without obvious "word painting."

Steve Reich, Music for 18 Musicians (1976) - I don't have anything to add to the other posters who've mentioned it. An overwhelming, trance-inducing experience. Dipping in and out of it doesn't work and as background music it's annoying; you have to sit down and surrender to it.

Gyorgy Ligeti, Piano Concerto (1988) - The best of Ligeti's "mature" period in my opinion - the driving polyrhythms, crystalline harmonies, kaleidoscopically varied timbres, and frankly catchy tunes. The second movement, which makes me think of a desolate winter landscape, is the centerpiece for me.

Toru Takemitsu, From me flows what you call Time (1990) - Unmatched for sheer gorgeous sound. It feels like the kind of dream that haunts you after you wake up even though you can't quite remember it.

Kaija Saariaho, Graal Theatre (1994) - I like this piece for almost exactly the same reasons as the Takemitsu, even though they're pretty different; same dream-like feeling, same glittering, beautiful surface.


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## AfterHours (Mar 27, 2017)

1. Symphony No. 15 in A Major - Dmitri Shostakovich (1971) 
2. Dolmen Music - Meredith Monk (1981) 
3. Symphony No. 8 - Alfred Schnittke (1994) 
4. Turangalila Symphony - Olivier Messiaen (1948) 
5. The Ascension - Glenn Branca (1981) 

Sorry don't have time to explain right now. They're all incredible though


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## StDior (May 28, 2015)

Stockhausen: Gesang der Jünglinge (1955-56)
Xenakis: Tetras (1983)
Gubaidulina: Quasi hoquetus (1984)
Lachenmann: Das Mädchen mit den Schwefelhölzern (1988-96)
Boulez: Anthèmes II (1997)

Go avant-garde!


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## Guest (Nov 1, 2018)

That's a great list, StDior. I love everything on it! Glad to see another fan of that Lachenmann opera. It's a hell of a piece!


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## LezLee (Feb 21, 2014)

*Philip Glass* - Days and nights in Rocinha

Heard this a few years ago on late night radio and was completely bowled over! It's not really like anything else of his and has got everything - tuneful, rhythmic and just so appealing. It's infuriating that it's been removed from YouTube and the only place to hear it is on Spotify. I listen to it at least once a week.

*Marfan Mozetich* - Violin Concerto - Affairs of the Heart. Just luscious. I heard his 'Eldorado' first and it led me on to his other works. There's nothing of his I don't like.






*Georgs Pelecis* - Neverthless. Another late night radio discovery. A wonderful Estonian composer, a sort of minimalism I suppose. Beautiful and completely gripping!






*Virgil Thomson* - Acadian Songs and Dances from Louisiana Story. Saw the film with the school film society in 1954 and never forgot the music. Finally found it 4 years later. Just love it.

*Keith Jarrett* - Köln Concert. Can I count this as classical please? Speaks for itself!


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## LezLee (Feb 21, 2014)

Kiki said:


> Much as I love the modern music, there is plenty of beautiful music, soul-searching music, mesmerising music, devastating music, but I often find myself craving for _happy_, _uplifting_ music, so here's my pick, Michael Torke's Color Music. It consists of five movements,
> 
> Green - Exuberant. I feel younger!
> Purple - Humourous. Reminds me of the old days when a big job was finished I could afford to be witty about it.
> ...


I'm another Torke fan and Ash and Bright Blue Music are my favourites. Love 'Javelin' too.


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## Kiki (Aug 15, 2018)

LezLee said:


> *Keith Jarrett* - Köln Concert. Can I count this as classical please? Speaks for itself!


Keith Jarrett's solo concerts are all brilliant, the Köln Concert especially, melodious and intense!


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## Olias (Nov 18, 2010)

Aaron Copland - Symphony 3 (1946) Its big, its beautiful, its brassy, its accessible, and has a hopeful optimism to it.

Philip Glass - Einstein On the Beach (1976) Its sooooooo hypnotic and otherworldly.

Leonard Bernstein: Slava! A Political Overture, for Orchestra (1977) A fun quickie that is sort of a tribute to vaudeville. Lenny grooving at his best.

Steve Reich - New York Counterpoint (1985) Love the timbres of the clarinet ensemble and the phasing effects.

Jennifer Higdon - Violin Concerto (2008) I love how it sounds modern but is very accessible. Plus the violin part is really wild.


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

1950's:

*Shostakovich Symphony #10 *- A journey encompassing mourning, terror, consolation and joy. Overpowering in its use of an immense orchestra (eight double basses!). Battleship grey at its best.

*Carter String Quartet No. 1* - Despite the small forces involved, this is an epic work. A culmination of Carter's study of the string quartet literature from the classical to modern period, it is fragmented but doesn't lack a sense of unity. There's a sense of landscape here too, especially in the eerie slow movement. Not surprising that it was composed in the Arizona desert. Unlike his later quartets, I find this challenging but still coherent.

*Villa-Lobos Guitar Concerto* - A trip to the jungle. It makes me think of dappled light coming through a dense forest canopy. There's lushness and lyricism but also a sense of rough rhythm and edginess, in both the solo and orchestral parts.

1960's:

*Sculthorpe Fifth Continent* - Encompasses the Australian continent in words and music, from the ocean, to the bush and the dry interior. Very evocative image painting in music, unique and not an Impressionist cliche in sight. The pieces work alone too, Pacific is like being at the beach:





1980's:

*Piazzolla Oblivion* - I love Piazzolla's music, but if forced to choose one tango, this is it. There's a sense of nostalgia and melancholy here, but also sensuality and languor. Its like the emotions of an entire symphony compressed into a short time.


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

Ligeti - violin concerto
Panufnik - bassoon concerto
Lutoslawski - symphony no.2
Takemitsu - Archipelago S. for 21 players
Bartok - 3rd piano concerto


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Sid James said:


> *Shostakovich Symphony #10 *- A journey encompassing mourning, terror, consolation and joy. Overpowering in its use of an immense orchestra (eight double basses!). Battleship grey at its best.


I like that! Hope people catch the reference.


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

KenOC said:


> I like that! Hope people catch the reference.


Oo-er - I didn't - and still not sure, even after googling it! 
Is it about Stalin?


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Ingélou said:


> Oo-er - I didn't - and still not sure, even after googling it!
> Is it about Stalin?


From Wiki: English composer and musicologist Robin Holloway described his music as "battleship-grey in melody and harmony, factory-functional in structure; in content all rhetoric and coercion."

A grain of truth in that. But is it a deficiency or a strength?


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## Roger Knox (Jul 19, 2017)

Of my five long-time favourites only the Tippett has been mentioned in this thread:

Dutilleux -* Piano Sonata* (1949) -- maybe the best 20th-century piano sonata -- atmosphere, invention, variety, technical challenges, all in the service of musical expression

Britten - *Peter Grimes* (1945) -- what an original operatic conception, in the English-speaking world the most important since Purcell

Rzewski -- *The People United Will Never Be Defeated* (1975) -- whatever your politics, this take on the 1973 coup in Chile comprising 36 Variations plus space for improvisation is stunning. I had the good fortune of hearing Marc-Andre Hamelin play it.

Tippett -- *Fantasia Concertante on a Theme of Corelli* (1953) -- solo an orchestral strings in the Baroque setup but with modern harmonization -- exquisite sonorities and striking contrasts along the way

Dalllapiccolla -- *Quaderno Musicale di Anna Libera* (1954) -- a "mild" serial work that has always haunted me, both piano and orchestral versions


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## Vronsky (Jan 5, 2015)

Xenakis: Pléïades (1978)
Ligeti: Musica Ricercata (1953)
Ligeti: Études pour piano, Book 1, 2 & 3 (1985-2001)
Lutosławski: Symphony No. 4 (1992)
Nono: Como una ola de fuerza y luz (1972)

Notable mentions:
Xenakis: Persephassa (1969)
Rodrigo: Concierto Andaluz (1967)
Panufnik: Polonia (1959)
Feldman: Triadic Memories (1981)
Varèse: Déserts (1954)
Stravinsky: Orpheus (1947)
Stravinsky: Symphony in Three Movements (1945)


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## 20centrfuge (Apr 13, 2007)

Here are five for me.

*Prokofiev: Symphony No. 6 *- musically more from the first half of the 20th century, a favorite of mine for years, perhaps some of it is for sentimental reasons because I fell for this piece in high school, a few decades ago, but I still find it to have a unique emotional landscape, with haunting themes and a lot of catharsis going on.

*Adams: Harmonielehre* - for me, this is THE masterpiece of the last 40 years. A three movement work that is visionary, bold, at times heart wrenching, though ultimately very peaceful.

*Shostakovich: Concerto for Violin* - just sings to me. Perfect violin writing and my favorite work by Shostakovich.

*Arnold: Symphony No. 5* - recently discovered this work and really love it.

*Rihm: Phantom und Eskapade* - The most 21st century feeling work of these five, it requires some concentrated listenings, but is ultimately very compelling and beautiful.

Honorable Mentions:
*Andriessen: De Staat* - funky minimalism
*Van der Aa: Hysteresis* - a little electronics with some addictive clarinet playing. The music feels like silly putty that is stretched, broken, and flipped inside out.


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## 20centrfuge (Apr 13, 2007)

I have to add

*Messiaen: Éclairs sur l'au-delà...
Adams: Nixon in China*


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## Roger Knox (Jul 19, 2017)

I appreciate the successful attempt of this thread to encourage people to write about the music they love. The world need more love, because love trumps hate.


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