Contemporary composers. Please help.

In addition to the good recommendations already listed I'll add Robert Simpson.

Brownsfan,

Not heresey to prefer the Britten string quartets more than the Bartok. Britten was quite the master of virtually all musical forms. I particularly like his chamber works, songs and his operas. Have you heard the Alwyn quartets? He is another overlooked English composer.

Lsd13,

You should get a listener's guide of some sort that describes the music, gives a brief biography and lists recommended recordings.

The hard part is finding the gems by composers who have little or no reputation who wrote only a few works worth tracking down. Given how personal favorites can be, it is hard to make recommendations for such composers or specific works (As an example, I like Rued Langgaard's "Antichrist," but it may not be a good general recommendation).

If you are interested in exploring further along those lines, and want either a high quality (& free!!) download or simply to research and sample-listen prior to purchasing LPs, definitely check out this website, which is a serious attempt to archive important 'new music', contemporary classical, etc. They have Kagel, Subotnick, Parmegiani, Hindemith, Babbitt, Cage, etc.

http://www.avantgardeproject.org/archive.htm

Ligeti has arrived. Amazing!
I started to put the list for the next week, with so many great advises I'm going to be busy for a wile.

Thank you guys!!!

I think you'll love Gavin Bryars. While you are at it, try some of Ryuichi Sakamoto's more classical stuff...amazing.