Which 20th (and 21st?) century composers should I listen to? Who do you think is the most interesting? Educate me, bub!
Well, thanks to other Dopers, I am currently enjoying the heck out of Yngwie Malmsteen’s “Concerto Suite for Electric Guitar.”
I’ll be paying attention to this thread for more recommendations too!
Stravinsky: Le Sacre du Printemps, Les Noces, l’Histoire du Soldat
Berg: Kammerkonzert (Chamber Concerto)
Bartók: Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta, String Quartets
Varèse: Amériques, Ionisation, Poème Electronique (actually, you can get his complete works on a double CD)
Milhaud: La Création du Monde, Le Boeuf sur le Toit
Penderecki: St. Luke Passion, The Devils of Loudun
Messiaen: Turangalîla
Xenakis: just about anything
Boulez: Le Mareau Sans Maître
Hovhaness: And God Created Great Whales, Symphony #21 (Etchmiadzin)
Riley: Rainbow in Curved Air
…and of course that’s barely scratching the surface.
Gyorgy Ligeti and Frank Zappa are both very cool (although Zappa’s music isn’t “purely” classical any more than it’s “purely” anything else).
Apocalyptica? They’re a cello quartet that started by doing Metallica songs, but they’ve branched out since then and now do a lot of original stuff.