Masterpieces of contemporary (art) music. Recommended popular pieces.

Stravinsky Symphony In Three MovementsTania Miller

Stravinsky Symphony In Three Movements -Victoria Symphony -Tania Miller, conductor

A masterpiece of the neoclassical era in which Stravinsky interprets J.

S.

Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No.

5 in his own way.

The composer himself said that while traveling in Germany during the Nazi era, he was shocked by a scene at a station where Jews were being assaulted, and that this became the impetus for the composition.

King KongThe Mothers of Invention

Frank Zappa and The Mothers of Invention – King Kong (1968 at BBC) 1/3

Frank Zappa spent his 52-year life continually dismantling existing musical concepts, releasing a vast body of work, and astonishing music freaks around the world with his shocking live performances.

The fact that Zappa—who absorbed music of every stripe, whether high art or pop—decided to pursue music because of the avant-garde modern composer Edgard Varèse already tells you he didn’t have an ordinary sensibility.

Zappa left so much material that it’s hard to know where to begin, but this time I’d like to introduce King Kong, a track from Uncle Meat, an early masterpiece released in 1969 under the Mothers of Invention.

It’s a large-scale work in six-part medley form, with only Part 6 taken from a live recording, presenting a veritable kaleidoscope of music—approached through chamber-music techniques and spanning classical, free jazz, modern music, and even roots music.

Empty your mind and let yourself be swept away by the flood of sound!

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Viriditas from the series “Nine Rivers”James Dillon

In this series, the instruments and ensemble vary from piece to piece.

Through James Dillon’s fieldwork, he absorbs materials from many musical domains and sprinkles them abundantly throughout his works.

He is also known for creating pieces that are impossible to reproduce and is unafraid of extreme complexity.

Arnold Schoenberg – Chamber Symphony No. 1, Op. 9Omega Ensemble

Chamber Symphony N3, III mv. by Airat Ichmouratov

It is known as the first work in which Schoenberg grew confident in his own distinctive style.

Although it is a short piece of about 20 minutes, it is an excellent example of clear narrative structure and marks the beginnings of atonal music, while remaining relatively accessible even to beginners—making it an ideal entry point into contemporary music.

Berg, Violin ConcertoAkiko Suwanai

[Concerto] Berg, Violin Concerto [Akiko Suwanai, Pierre Boulez, Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra

The violin concerto, completed just before the composer’s sudden death, was written in mourning for the daughter of a close acquaintance.

Unusually for a concerto, it is in two movements.

Its austere tone admits no easy compromise from the listener, yet it has often been included in the repertoire by popular violinists.

Pie JesuAndrew Lloyd Webber

Andrew Lloyd Webber, Sarah Brightman, Paul Miles-Kingston – Pie Jesu

If you’re a fan of musicals, you’ve probably come across the name Andrew Lloyd Webber at least once.

He is a British composer of worldwide renown who wrote the music for celebrated masterpieces like Jesus Christ Superstar and The Phantom of the Opera.

Often called a modern-day Mozart, Webber is a prodigious composer who graduated from the prestigious Royal College of Music, while also being deeply influenced by avant-garde contemporary composers.

The piece introduced here, Pie Jesu, is one movement from a pure Requiem composed by Webber in 1985, and it is a work quite different in character from his dazzling musical theater scores.

The performance by Webber’s former wife, the internationally acclaimed singer Sarah Brightman, together with boy soprano Paul Miles-Kingston, envelops us in a cleansing beauty that seems to wash over the heart just by listening.

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Requiem for StringsTakemitsu Tōru

Performance of Takemitsu’s Requiem, March 17, 2011

Toru Takemitsu’s breakthrough work, which exerted a profound influence on contemporary music in the latter half of the 20th century not only in Japan but worldwide.

The background to Stravinsky’s high praise—“Who would have thought such a small man could write music so severe and intense?”—was the fact that the piece was composed under the shadow of death, as Takemitsu, burdened with the chronic illness of tuberculosis, confronted his mortality.