# Piano sonatas of this decade (contemporary classical music)?



## jonatan (May 6, 2016)

I am currently listening Beethoven sonatas (by Barenboim) and I wonder - what about sonata form in this decade (2010-2020)? Are there composers that are still writing piano sonatas, where can I find them? What are important names? Do they have more than 10 sonatas each?

It seems to me that the instrumental works for ensembles of 5-20 in the length of 10-20 minutes are the current most used form in contemporary music and such forms as sonatas are being considered obsolete, isn't so?


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## Rogerx (Apr 27, 2018)

Soundcloud is your friend.


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## Marijn (Mar 13, 2019)

I still write "old-fashioned" Piano (and violin) Sonata's. I have 20 thus far. 
You can listen to them on my youtube channel Classy Compositions.

I tried finding others that do so (before I started doing it myself), but didn't find any... which is actually one of the reasons I started doing it myself.


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## millionrainbows (Jun 23, 2012)




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## RICK RIEKERT (Oct 9, 2017)

Since 2011 Stephen Hough has written four solo works for piano which he calls sonatas: broken branches (2011), notturno luminoso (2012), Sonata III (Trinitas) (2015) and Vida Breve (2016).


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## Kjetil Heggelund (Jan 4, 2016)

Lera Auerbach has a few. Her style is not so modernistic.


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## joen_cph (Jan 17, 2010)

John White (1936- ) had written at least 172 piano sonatas as of 2010, not much recorded or internationally performed though. 
I suppose there must be some more recent ones too.


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## Guest (Apr 9, 2019)

millionrainbows said:


>


Those were written well before the current decade.


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## Torkelburger (Jan 14, 2014)

Carl Vine's piano music, including 4 sonatas, should be considered modern classics. Wonderful pieces and brilliant composer.

In the past decade:
_The Arrival of Implacable Gifts_ (piano four hands) (2017)
_Toccatissimo_ (2011)
_Sonata for Piano Four Hands_ (2009)

Just prior:
_Piano Sonata No. 3_ (2007)
_The Anne Landa Preludes_ (solo piano) (2006)

And very highly recommended:
_Piano Sonata No. 1_ (1990)
_Piano Sonata No. 2_ (1997)


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## Portamento (Dec 8, 2016)

Chris Dench's _Piano Sonata_ (2015/16) was written this decade and is a great work. As for finding others, Soundcloud and Bandcamp are the way to go.


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## Enthusiast (Mar 5, 2016)

A decade is a very short time for a substantial body of work (>10 sonatas) to be developed. And it is very hard to assess the value of music that is less than 10 years old. If we were talking of the last 50 years it might be easier to have a shot at answering the OP. Also, why do we feel that a major composer has to have produced more than 10 to be interesting as a composer of piano sonatas - one or two seminal works ought to be enough? And, finally, why sonatas only? Since Liszt and Chopin (and then Debussy and so on) the greatest composers of piano music often focused most of their attention on other forms (with Scriabin as an obvious exception). Even Brahms, perhaps because he was always looking over his shoulder at Beethoven, composed his three sonatas early in his career and then used other forms. I think the question in the OP needs to be broadened in one direction or another if the answers are to catch a good sample of recent solo piano music.


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## tortkis (Jul 13, 2013)

A prominent composer of Wandelweiser group, Eva-Maria Houben wrote 10 piano sonatas (2011-2013.) Very austere and minimal. The first six sonatas are recorded on diafani, and no. 10 is included in Lost in dreams (EWR 1305.)

klaviersonate nr. 10 - V: in memoriam olivier messiaen

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https://soundcloud.com/cafeoto%2Fewr1305-klaviersonate-nr-10-sonata-for-piano-no-10-2013-i-in-memoriam-olivier-messiaen


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