A little off-topic, but I was pleased to see a reference above to Arrigo Boito's great opera on the Faust legend, entitled Mefistofele.  

It's not contemporary.  But it is one of the greatest operas, musically stunning, sweepingly melodic, richly orchestrated  and lyrically fascinating (based on Goethe).  In my view, it far surpasses Gounod's Faust.  I strongly recommend the recording with Caesar Siepi and Renata Tebaldi.  Excellent sound, btw, even though recorded in the 1950s.

If you like Verdi (Boito was a librettist for Verdi) or Puccini, Boito's Mefistofele is a must.

1. Love Aarvo Paart, but no idea how he comes out of Schoenberg (atonal)

2. Michael Torque (eg album of color music including Bright blue) great fun.

3. Einaudi, currently alive, beloved music, speaks to human heart.

4. No longer alive, but Hovaness wrote many wonderful symphonies.

Thanks very much for the recommendation all unknown to me...

I will look for some...

For your friend albums i keep no more cd nor any vinyls...

 Me deepest thaqnks for interesting suggestions....

@mahgister I get weepy watching Bogart in In A Lonely Place which stars Bruckner's symphony no.5, 4th movement.  Most Bruckner symphonies have great meaning to me as well.  

I have an acquaintance who is 84 and in feeble condition who needs to dispose of his about 800 to 1000 renaissance choral LPs. I am not an aficionado and if you are interested in an excellent collection at low cost, I can provide you with his contact information.  

For some brilliant religious Jewish choral music composed by a jazz/classical pianist in both lyrical and dramatic vein, this link Aminadav Aloni provides some free and great music.  He was like Beethoven of modern choral Jewish music whereby he used traditional/required thematic lyrics and music structures but developed them in a modern harmonic and rhythmic structure, incorporating jazz, pop and other modern forms. Search – HMSI  The S'Fatai Tiftach 13 choral works begin shrouded in mystery and extend to heartfelt and heartrending beauty.  Always with a hummable melody.

There are other live/current Jewish music composers who compose in grandiose schemes such as Meir Finkelstein (you apparently know Lucas Richman) and all jazz themes (jazz pianist and arranger) Chris Harden and all genres, Michael Issacson.  

@mahgister I get weepy watching Bogart in In A Lonely Place which stars Bruckner's symphony no.5, 4th movement.  Most Bruckner symphonies have great meaning to me as well.  

I have an acquaintance who is 84 and in feeble condition who needs to dispose of his about 800 to 1000 renaissance choral LPs. I am not an aficionado and if you are interested in an excellent collection at low cost, I can provide you with his contact information.  

For some brilliant religious Jewish choral music composed by a jazz/classical pianist in both lyrical and dramatic vein, this link Aminadav Aloni provides some free and great music.  He was like Beethoven of modern choral Jewish music whereby he used traditional/required thematic lyrics and music structures but developed them in a modern harmonic and rhythmic structure, incorporating jazz, pop and other modern forms. Search – HMSI  The S'Fatai Tiftach 13 choral works begin shrouded in mystery and extend to heartfelt and heartrending beauty.  Always with a hummable melody.

There are other live/current Jewish music composers who compose in grandiose schemes such as Meir Finkelstein (you apparently know Lucas Richman) and all jazz themes (jazz pianist and arranger) Chris Harden and all genres, Michael Issacson.  

The problem with me is that music i loved i listen to it too often... Bach and Schutz and Monteverdi reach thousand of listening sessions each one during my long life... Jazz help me to break the spell...And falling in love with Bruckner, and scriabin helped me too ...

The music i like a lot, i listened to it more sparsely, but this music exceed vastly in numbers the music i love too much for sure than i could listen thanks to Persian and Indian music and Jazz other pieces than Bach or 15 and 16 centuries songs and choral music ...

In more popular music songs called pop, words and poetry matter very much at least if not much than music...

I like too much choral music to be immersed when young in pop music as were my friends...I prefered Dylan, Cohen and the french poet Leo Ferre to most because of poetry in these times ...

My first heard piece of music was small choral folks eighteen century french and anglo saxon songs picked at radio program each noon before even i can read... Choral music for me was beating everything else when young ...Obrecht and Josquin Des Prez put me in ectasy...All french flamish school in particular...

But i was excluded very young from the church choral because i cannot sang right; music is more a heart vibration some beat i felt or a a dancing geometry i look at more than a melody in time for me.... i guess that in choral works the beat as in Schutz Geistliche chor music, my favorite piece with the 8th book of madrigals by Monteverdi and all Bach choral music or the flowing geometry of the crowding voices in space were my obsession.

I imagine that my taste and journey and obsessions in music were caused by this handicap in music and my performance limitations.

I was fascinated and interested in acoustics more than in buying gear because of this habit of seeing music in space more than hearing it flowing in time ...Then i learned how to make any music stand up in space with headphones or speakers...

Bach beat all composers in geometric perfection, probably he wrote God music....Scriabin is a genius because he gave me a heart fractals demonically creative music he never used a recipe but reinvented his piano playings in this new fractals dimension space between tonal and atonal ... I was a Bruckner devotee because he pushed to perfection Bach geometry and cinematic almost movie like motivated music with a beat no one could ever recreated...Each Bruckner symphonies is for me a specific movie i can describe in details. I did it for the fifth the most "perfect" Bruckner symphonies... The most beautiful being the 6 the 7 the 8 and the 9... The 5 th was the most deep intellectually, for sure the 9th is the more tragic one... The 8 is between the 5 and 9 in beauty and perfection married together... The 6 and 7 are the more easy to listen and understand at first sight ...

Bruckner mastery of choral music was my introduction... At the Shubert level as Brahms...

😊

@mahgister I just heard several of the first posts, long dead Armenian composer, Persian song and Feinberg (I already have the Feinberg recording). All great, especially the Armenian choir. I read your Pop music interest. For me, I’m in love with 20th century pop music, 1900 to 1970 and then less so thereafter (my wife enjoys heavy metal up to Led Zeppelin-sounds great in my listening room but I’m not crazy about it). My pop music extends back to 1900+ dixieland, blues and tin pan alley and nearly all jazz periods including modern compositions (post bop, rock/jazz and country if pre-1960s) and especially close to my heart, Yiddish song. I have equally eclectic tastes. Through jazz, I am still discovering new interpretations of classic pop songs both vocal and mostly instrumental.

My only yiddisch inspired music love is The book of angels of Zorn... A genius for me...

@mahgister I just heard several of the first posts, long dead Armenian composer, Persian song and Feinberg (I already have the Feinberg recording).  All great, especially the Armenian choir.  I read your Pop music interest.  For me, I'm in love with 20th century pop music, 1900 to 1970 and then less so thereafter (my wife enjoys heavy metal up to Led Zeppelin-sounds great in my listening room but I'm not crazy about it).  My pop music extends back to 1900+ dixieland, blues and tin pan alley and nearly all jazz periods including modern compositions (post bop, rock/jazz and country if pre-1960s) and especially close to my heart, Yiddish song.  I have equally eclectic tastes.   Through jazz, I am still discovering new interpretations of classic pop songs both vocal and mostly instrumental.  

Music as a spiritual experience is not always received in the same way by all people on all their paths.

Music is a galaxy if not a cosmos where any orbits define specific consciousness levels. Music is not reducible to taste.

Taste there is yes, but music is not about tastes.

It is about consciousness levels and there exist many mansions in the father realm said someone wiser than me.

Consciousness levels can not only be higher or lower compared to one another, they can be parallels. they even could be diverging and reconverging roads.

For me music is visible and invisible geometry.

Music is from the heart but even the heart has his own very precise geometry...I posted a video about the heart geometry and music in  the thread about sound and mystical experience .

I performed of Maria Newman's choral work premieres at the Los Angeles Cathedral of the Lady of the Angels in 2018 with a chorus of about 100.  It is unfortunate it was not recorded and the acoustics were terrible (two secord reverb at the back of the huge church).  She has written so much beautiful music. 

As to Anna Clyne's cello work is very nice.

As to Takamitsu, I can listen to the shorter works but I won't spend an hour listening to what to me is sophisticated ramblings.  Maybe others will appreciate it more.   

This is so certainly beautiful if not sublime...

Certainly beautiful if not sublime...

Has anyone mentioned Tōru Takemitsu?

Seriously great composer. His compositions tend to have an air of mystery and serenity.

Anna Clyne's great piece DANCE I-V ...

This is stunning...

Maria Newman requiem..

I must say that i listened choral music since my child years...

And I understand that many will have reserve for the Buddah passion  , myself i listened oriental music for a long time...

@mahgister Love the Reindeer Variations, appreciate the Water Concerto but the I do not appreciate the Buddha Passion (opposite of what I want to hear). The soprano wordless "singing" is incoherent to me and the orchestra makes some nauseating sounds. This is my opinion, not a fact. I listened to nearly all of it so I gave it a chance. I love Bollywood musicals but not Indian operas where the singing apparently includes the tones between Western notes.

What to you think about the Maria Newman work?

Apparently, my Lucas Richman piece did not get posted. Here it is: TYRL3428TH (youtube.com) (from 20:40).@

Buddha passion is a masterpiece :

One of the great Aminadav Aloni's religious oratorios which has a lifetime of jazz and classical compositional attributes (mostly in English and some Hebrew)  with LAJS (LA Phil/studio/amateur orchestra members) 

Kohelet (the Book of Ecclesiastes) by Ami Aloni (youtube.com)

Now a genius much not well known here :

I like a lot this of Lucas Richman

I see Phillip Glass mentioned many times here.

The only weird thing about Phillip Glass he bases all his compositions off the simple minor chord arpeggio

Lucas Richman: 3 movement symphony - This Will Be Our Reply, 1988 

Skip to 20:40, third movement (written first, other movements later to fill in)

Full orchestra & chorus   This is a great modern work (like Leonard Bernstein's great works).  I performed at Disney Hall on 8/2019 West Coast Premiere with LAJS/Korean orchestra, 90 singers.  Compare to avantgarde music (which has it's place).  This is emotionally targeting more people, like Bernstein.  This and his 2000 full orchestrated Dachau Lied (also premiere and sung for 2000 students in 2023 with me among the 16 male singers) unavailable due to musician guild restrictions.  Our performance had people on the edge of their seats it was electrifying (studio and LA Phil musicians).  

Recently came across the band Bliss. It's ambient neo-classical crew that wonders me with every of their album. 

Except for Glass who i like , i dont think we will argue much about music if i read your posts..

For the Busoni Faust i like it a lot because of Dietrich Fischer Dieskau who sing it at his peak... No other will have done better...

My best to you...

Prior to Omar, my favorite two "modern" operas are from the 1950s, Barber’s Vanessa and Moore’s Ballad of Baby Doe (with Sills 5 arias in my head whenever I think of them). So, this Omar was very special.

While I have heard and appreciate Busoni's Doktor Faust (in my permanent collection) my favorite and my wife's is Boito's Faust (saw it with Ramey) and Gounod Faust (too long for her). 

@mahgister You are correct. It’s only about the music. As an opera, it’s "stupid." Half the audience left in mid-opera. This was pre-Covid and a full house. The recording of the music sounds great. Compare Glass’s compositions to Newman’s. Which do you prefer? I also love Busoni, Scriabin, some Berg and Webern, etc. I am picky as to music but have a wide era and type of music appreciation that. Most of this forum’s samples I understand but don’t want to hear again. Certainly not a 12 hour? piano work.

I’ve liquidated 18,000 LPs/78s to date because I have a rule, if I don’t desire to hear a recording three times annually, out it goes. I still have about 10,000 LPs and CDs to cull (many opera duplicates as late friends donated classical vocal and operas I already have and boring CDs of very lesser known composers whose music isn’t "special" to me).

Aside-my middle name is Phillip and my last name translates (Yiddish) to glass bottle-maker ergo Philip Glass! I generally dislike his "music." I’d rather my name  be associated closer to Charles Valentin Alkan.

To defend Philip Glass stunning musical creativity i must say that i will never go to see this opera myself ..😁

Why ?

Because it is a series of few successive snapshop paintings without any dramatic continuously maintained drama tension as like in a theater drama where the action is going on with the music with not only singers but singers actors... ( Mozart sublime opera for example or Puccini)

In the Glass work the music is the main actor , not the one who read the few texts...

Then seeing it before listening to it you conclude rightfuly that it was a bad opera in the traditional sense of the word...

I did only listen to it as a stunning musical atmosphere recreation of the sacred impression behind life in Ancient Egypt. A piece of music not really an opera...

The Faust of Busoni is my favorite Modern opera withy the Kurt Weil three penny opera and even there where the little snapshops scenes goes on with one another the music serve the plot drama... In the Glass opera the music is the drama and the main character.

I understand your perspective and opinion then perfectly but luckily i only listened to it and i never waited to see a drama which cannot win much to be seen because it is a piece of music way more than an opera... A minimalist opera, here the label is right ... 😊

And on my playback system it is stunningly beautiful and mesmerizing...

The most important book that change the course of my life was a book about the temple of Karnak...Then...

Thanks for the Omar opera recommendation i will listen to it for sure...😊 I did not know it ...

Where I strongly disagree is the horrible (but presumtively great performance) of Philip Glass Akhnaten which I saw to my dismay, live at the LA Opera. From the opening bars where the idea is to create tension, it creates a negative energy like someone clawing their nails on a chalkboard. The ending with the death of the six daughters had no input from them and totally bizarre and uninteresting. No real sung libretto, just noise. The poor dancers rolling balls back and forth on the ground. REAL DRECK!

@mahgister I listen overwhelmingly mostly to tonal music. I have now over 51,000 LPs/CDs/78s/R2R with 3,000+ piano CDs 10,000+ LPs alone.

I agree with most of your comments. I also have over 70,000 classical vocal and opera recordings/tracks. Season tickets with over 400 live opera performances.

I prefer modern/current composers with gorgeous melodies and harmonies, mixed jazz/classical genre or other mixed music from choral to orchestral (Aminadav Aloni, Maria Newman, etc). Maria Newman has music which also harkens back to Schoenberg’s brother in law Erich Zeisl (whose music I adore and I was the archival engineer for 11 CD compilations of his pre-1960 recordings for his Vienna Centennial in 2005 thanks to his grandson Randol Schoenberg).

Where I strongly disagree is the horrible (but presumtively great performance) of Philip Glass Akhnaten which I saw to my dismay, live at the LA Opera. From the opening bars where the idea is to create tension, it creates a negative energy like someone clawing their nails on a chalkboard. The ending with the death of the six daughters had no input from them and totally bizarre and uninteresting. No real sung libretto, just noise. The poor dancers rolling balls back and forth on the ground. REAL DRECK!

You want a GREAT new opera-Omar by Rhiannon Giddens and Michael Abels. It didn’t have a solo that I could hum or sing but overall, the story, libretto and production were superlative.

Zeisl is not contemporary by age because he died in 1960, like Kurt Weill, another favorite of mine. But Maria Newman is still here. I performed her choral/orchestral works that have not been recorded unfortunately.

Here’s a sample of her throwback to Zeisl (whom I introduced to AFTER she wrote this work).

Le Livre D’Esther in G minor, Op. 38 No. 2: iI. Mordecai - YouTube

Le Livre D’Esther in G minor, Op. 38 No. 2: iII. The Decrees of Esther - YouTube Le Livre D’Esther in G minor, Op. 38 No. 2: iV. Purim (youtube.com)

Le Livre D’Esther in G minor, Op. 38 No. 2: i. The Purification (youtube.com) (nice opening movement-look to other 3 for real excitement. 

Does this remind you of Copland possibly?  She is also a superb violinist and violist.  I have done recordings for the Viklarbo Chamber at non Marlboro venues in Los Angeles.  

So many great current composers of ethnic/religious music that are classical music as well.  Few "classical" music aficionados have heard the breath and depth of modern composition.  I have about 1,000 "modernist" classical music recordings although I tend to prefer those with something I can latch onto.  As to so many forgotten (now revived composers), I started with Alkan in 1965 and then Moscheles (Etudes-Ponti) in 1970

You are right...

I lost alas! my stunning version Of the "people united will never be defeated" by Rzewski himself... No other interpretation sticked with me...

I lost my cd ...

It is why i did not mention it by despair ...

I only had youtube version of him ...

@mahgister has many fine examples.

But he’s overlooked the finest composer for piano, and the finest virtuoso performer on the piano, of the latter half of the 20th Century.

But for now, I provide a link to what is my favorite composition of his, which is not piano.

Here is a stunning performance of the Winsboro Cotton Mill Blues, based on a one minute Pete Seeger folk song:

@mahgister has many fine examples. 
 

But he’s overlooked the finest composer for piano, and the finest virtuoso performer on the piano, of the latter half of the 20th Century. 
 

But for now, I provide a link to what is my favorite composition of his, which is not piano. 
 

OP

Nice way to open the discussion. +1 Re: Silvestrov. 

And big +1 for Helene Grimaud. 

She will be touring US and Europe (although with a more traditional repertoire) 

Here is the link should anyone out there be near any of the venues. Unfortunately, I am not. 

Events from January 18 – May 24 – Hélène Grimaud (helenegrimaud.com) 

Cheers

Conrad Winslow makes wonderful music.
He makes his own music and collaborates with many top-shelf artists around the country, often in the vein of the more avant-garde (not a lot of stuff that sounds like Mendelssohn or whatever).
A collaborative outfit he co-founded, Wild Shore, has a core of he, Andie Tanning and Katie Cox that brings in new players every year, fields a bunch of composition entries from around the world (often based on a particular idea or theme) and then arranges them for that year’s ensemble and puts on a wonderfully dynamic show of both original and interpreted pieces.

Brilliant.

In the same vein is Haley Kallenberg.
Both Conrad and Haley are masterful piano players but Haley’s music is generally more piano-centric whereas Conrad’s is often of an ensemble.
Also brilliant.

@mahler123

My tastes are more along the lines of @mahgister , but I concur with @simonmoon ,, that ultimately taste is subjective and we shouldn’t impose ours on others.

I think one of turn offs for me of the Second Viennese School (SVS) was the dogmatic approach of its adherents. They loudly argued that tonality dead, that music must inevitably evolve towards serialism, in the same manner that Communism argued that Capitalism was dead and that world economies would inevitably be Red. It isn’t the music that I necessarily dislike. Unmoored from these ideological underpinnings, I find a lot of it worth exploring

I discovered the music of the 2nd Viennese School long before I heard of any of their supposed dogma. So, I really couldn’t care less about any of their claims. 

I listen to the music based purely on whether I like it or not.

Also, the music of the 2nd Vienese School is just a small part of the classical music I listen to.

Elliott Carter is one of my favorite composers, and he never used serial techniques. Which is true of most of the music I listen to.

Interesting question, @mahler123

Nuevo Tango itself was created by Astor Piazzolla which is mixed with jazz improvisation. I’ve mentioned Dino Saluzzi, but did not mention Daniel Binelli, who took it to the next level mixing Tango with African rhythms. Also he wrote tango symphonies and was playing-conducting those. Daniel Binelli is still alive and even well.

I've mentioned Hans Zimmer, because he indeed modern classical composer for the movie scores and so can be many more.

My tastes are more along the lines of @mahgister , but I concur with @simonmoon ,, that ultimately taste is subjective and we shouldn’t impose ours on others.

I think one of turn offs for me of the Second Viennese School (SVS) was the dogmatic approach of its adherents.  They loudly argued that tonality dead, that music must inevitably evolve towards serialism, in the same manner that Communism argued that Capitalism was dead and that world economies would inevitably be Red.  It isn’t the music that I necessarily dislike.  Unmoored from these ideological underpinnings, I find a lot of it worth exploring 

A few more composers:

John Adams.  I love his opera Nixon in China.

Thomas Ades.  Try Tevot, or the Violin Concerto.

Max Richter.   The Four Seasons Recomposed.

Frederic Rzewski.  Marc-Andre Hamelin's recording of his "The People United" is astonishing.

And on the topic of Philip Glass, I prefer many of his later, more sophisticated music in comparison to the early, more minimalistic works.  His operas Orphee (based on the Cocteau film) and Kepler (it rocks!) are particular favorites.  Also the Eighth Symphony, and the first Violin Concerto.

@czarivey 

while you are at it, can you recommend a Nuevo Tango composer other than Piazzola?  I am definitely interested 

Can you recommend any Zimmer that isn’t a movie score?

Not really a new discovery, but how we can forget about Hans Zimmer?

I can recommend this Roslavets by Hamelin...

His cold playing is marvellous here :

I can return the accusation... Just dont assume that the Schoenberg school speak to most humans...It is ONLY your opinion that it is not a dead end ...( an interesting dead end for sure no one dispute that but a dead end )

My opinion is the same as the great Ernest Ansermet one of the great maestro, and if you dont know it author a huge book ( 1,200 pages)on the meaning and history and phenomenology of Music... " the foundation of music in human consciousness" i partake his opinion ... I studied his book and i studied the great Swiss philosopher Jean Claude Piguet, who is a disciple and collaborator of Ansermet ,was my philosophy teacher with his mammoth book , not in english translation alas! "the knowledge of the individual and the logic of realism"

Now take a referendum :

How many body-heart- humans not mere minds are moved by the Schoenberg Atonal algebra ?

You said it yourself, you like "thorny" music speaking mainly to your mind , i prefer music which speak to my body as tango or african rythms, or speak to my heart as Beethoven , and music which speak to my soul as Bach ... Better than that i look for music which spoke to my body, heart and soul and to my mind together : Indian rag music do the job or Persian modes ...Jazz too... Choral music is my main favorite music...

I appreciate music improvised by great musicians on not well known instruments in the west the most ...Way more than abstract rules of "thorny" music as serialism and other mathematical formulas using noise...

In my music listening habit i like to discover each week but i need to listen regularly my favorite pieces some hundreds of times...

Music which speak only a "thorny" abstract written language inherited from some rules as serialism and others formulas ( Xenakis for example or Stochausen or even Varese ) to my mind mainly dont seduce me much... They are "curiosities" not earth shattering experience of the spirit as a great concert of Ravi Shankar could be for me...

To each one his taste you are right on this but we express freely our opinion as such...

But when i give my opinion it is my opinion , as thorny music is your choice but for me it is a dead end most of the times... If you want to know why : read Ansermet book which is in french only alas!

«How does the musical phenomenon appear? It arises, says Ansermet, from the adequacy of the relationship of one tonal position to another, and from a rhythmic cadence. This, however, only constitutes a beginning of the musical imaging act: it is the musical cell, which only temporalizes by a passage from the beginning to the motif, which results in the taking of tonal perspective.»

@mahgister

Just because Schoenberg and the 12 tone method is no longer used, does not mean it was a dead end.

The history of classical music is littered with "dead ends" long before the 2nd Viennese school.

The 2nd Viennese school, has remained influential to this day. Just in ways not specifically 12 tone.

Just because you are unable to detect music that speaks to the heart from many contemporary composers, does not mean others are not able to.

You seem to have the feeling that your way of listening to music is the only way. And the only way to convey deep emotion and beauty, is to for the composer tp make it obvious.

Please don’t assume your personal prejudices are an objective fact.

You are right on this though there is some work that are very interesting here even moving ,,, I hate the idyosincrasic serialism of Boulez for example but i like Berg concerto for the memory of an angel ...But it is some of the rare  exception... I said it is a dead end because not much composers revendicate anymore strict atonality as a rule or even as the main inspiration ... I prefer Scriabin spontaneous  "atonal" /tonal frontier exploration with no recipe and no written rule ...

Now read me right, i consider the first and last Schoenberg as a genius... I am not completely stupid... 😊 i like Gesualdo music for example , totally and completely, but it is a dead end road as written , Monteverdi will go on a less ethereal road and i like him too at the same level ... I hope you will understand better my perspective now ...

I concur with Arvo Part suggestion ...

All these composers go out of the dead end road created by Schoenberg...

😊

Music must speak to the human heart or to the body metabolism or to the soul...When it spoke out of tonality or out of cultural grounded modes or out of articulated rythms as speech is , music begin to be a mind space only where we have nothing to eat and give to the heart, the soul or to the body...

You can heal someone with Bach or Beethoven i doubt you can do it so successfully and easily with the second Viennese school... The OM sound or the CHrist sound or Yoruba speaking drums will do it better ...😊

Finally in music there is tastes, we are each one of us different with our own history and biases, but ultimately music as acoustic is not about tastes..

Tastes there is, but tastes it is not ....

@mahgister

Just because Schoenberg and the 12 tone method is no longer used, does not mean it was a dead end.

The history of classical music is littered with "dead ends" long before the 2nd Viennese school.

The 2nd Viennese school, has remained influential to this day. Just in ways not specifically 12 tone.

Just because you are unable to detect music that speaks to the heart from many contemporary composers, does not mean others are not able to.

You seem to have the feeling that your way of listening to music is the only way. And the only way to convey deep emotion and beauty, is to for the composer tp make it obvious.

Please don’t assume your personal prejudices are an objective fact.

Why not ?

The most important revolution in European classical written music by "composers" came in the last century with the official discovery by Bartok and others of the cultural roots of music... Before that many composers as Chopin with the mazurkas for example were influenced by popular grounded music in the cultural soil... It was even such in Bach times ...Then came the mixing of these roots all around the earth with classical european music but also the influences  all style  had over all others , not only with folklore transcription as in Bartok times but with recording easier process and play back system ...

This is why i own extensive collection of Persian and Indian music... Or fado etc ... Why not tango ?

But it is the OP thread and idea not mine ... I must shut up ... 😁

Can we consider nuevo tango as modern classical music? I’m thinking of Dino Saluzzi and Astor Piazzolla

Can we consider nuevo tango as modern classical music? I'm thinking of Dino Saluzzi and Astor Piazzolla 

I concur with Arvo Part suggestion ...

All these composers go out of the dead end road created by Schoenberg...

😊

Music must speak to the human heart or to the body metabolism or to the soul...When it spoke out of tonality or out of cultural grounded modes or out of articulated rythms as speech is , music begin to be a mind space only where we have nothing to eat and give to the heart, the soul or to the body...

You can heal someone with Bach or Beethoven i doubt you can do it so successfully and easily with the second Viennese school... The OM sound or the CHrist sound or Yoruba speaking drums will do it better ...😊

Finally in music there is tastes, we are each one of us different with our own history and biases, but ultimately music as acoustic is not about tastes..

Tastes there is, but tastes it is not ....

Arvo Pärt’s compositions are captivating. I was intrigued by the idea of "minimalist music" and particularly admire "Spiegel im Spiegel," "Fratres for String Quartet," and all the pieces in "Creator Spiritus."

His first works with the "perfumed garden" are a must...Begin with that ...

His 100 transcendental studies too ...Buy Ullen here ...

Dont begin with anything else...

Sorabji is an obsessed mind creating 9 hours pieces...

It is in a way a genious lost in himself ...

it is the reverse of Scriabin who spoke to us...

His short pieces transform us ...

Sorabji dont transform me but propose his own inner world for the sake of it and is indifferent to the listener in a way Scriabin was not , Scriabin vouched to redempt and save humanity from himself , he is a mystic; Sorabji is not a mystic but a poet inspired by mathematics and geometry...A Bach without the center of God... but is geometry is astounding and ask for a focussed attention almost no one can give...And it is unplayable on piano not for the same reason than Scriabin short pieces... how to keep the intensity for 4 or 5 hours in the Clavicem ? Ogdon only do it...Ullen do a job without defect on the transcendent studies...

i like Sorabji and by moment love him ...

Anyway no other composer use the piano this way....And anyway he is unknown because he had  forbid people to play his works and anyway they are impossible to play because of duration...

@mahgister

Sorabji is intriguing. Will explore. Thanks!

@mahgister 

Sorabji is intriguing. Will explore. Thanks!  

Wanted. Dead or Alive. 

Villa Lobos  is a composer who is neither traditionalist nor influenced by the like of the second  Viennese school ... It is a great composer as anyone must know ...

I will put it here  if the OP accepted  a dead man .... 😊

I haven't seen anyone mentioned Brazilian Choro composers such as Ernesto Nazareth or Heitor Villa Lobos... Can we consider them as modern classical composers?