Music Recommendations

Lili Boulanger : Du fond de l'abîme (1917)
Her masterpiece, written over the course of several years. I consider this piece amongst the best choral/orchestral pieces ever written - certainly of her time. That she was able to write this before her too early death at age 24, and during World War I, is a moving testament to what humanity could be.

Lili Boulanger : Vieille prière bouddhique (1914)
This piece was my introduction to Lili Boulanger and therefore has a place in my heart.

Galina Ustvol'skaya : Grand Duet (1959)
It was this piece that started my obsession with Ustvol'skaya´s music. Works like this make it clear why Ustvol'skaya didn't consider her music to be "chamber music" - it is more like a grand symphony condensed into only two instruments, retaining all the impact.
(Note: There are some ridiculously bad recordings of this piece available. For this reason, I specifically recommend the recording by the Barton Workshop, which was endorsed by the composer herself.)

Galina Ustvol'skaya : Piano Sonata No. 2 (1949)
This is the first piece of her in which there is no other metric unit smaller than quarter notes, and indeed almost nothing else. A radical yet precise exercise, providing a catarthic experience.

Galina Ustvol'skaya : Piano Sonata No. 5 (1986)
In an odd way, this piece might be more accessible, because the main narrative is easy to understand: A constant struggle to keep up and insisting on the middle d-flat, despite all the rest of the piece trying to smash it with all kinds of painful methods. Think of a martyr that doesn't ever denounce their belief even when tortured?

Galina Ustvol'skaya : Violin Sonata (1952)
To be honest, I recommend almost all pieces by Ustvol'skaya, but at least I want to point to one more, the Violin Sonata, as another favourite of mine.

Ruth Crawford Seeger : Two Ricercari (1932)
This is, in my opinion, a perfect example how political art songs can work.
"Here is the brush made of study. Here is the soap made of action. Let us all wash with the brush! Let us all press with the iron! Wash! Brush! Dry! Iron! - Then we shall have a clean world." (Text by H.T. Tsiang)

Béla Bartók : The Miraculous Mandarin - Suite (1918-1926)
If someone asks me about my favourite orchestra piece, this is it. I don't care much for what the libretto of the ballet says (and it's racist implications), but the music is both structurally solid and evocative like only few other pieces.

Béla Bartók : String Quartets (1909 - 1939)
Those works are difiicult to get into - at least that was my experience as a teenager - but whenever I return to them, they seem to provide a more wholesome music experience than what others have to offer.
If I'd had to pick a favourite, it would be the String Quartet No. 2 (1917).

Hans Werner Henze : Symphony No. 4 (1955)
Henze wrote a lot of music, some bad, some good, and a few brilliant pieces like this one. The calm quiet dark forest that this music was supposed to depict (in his opera King Stag) just works really well as a stand-alone orchestral piece.

Edgard Varèse : Amériques (1921/1927)
This piece is like fresh air. Wildly imaginative in its time, aggressively noisy with its dominating percussion, and yet strangely reminiscent of impressionist sound in other places.

Igor Stravinsky : The Rite of Spring (1913)
In the unlikely case that you don't know this piece, you would have missed one of the most brilliant and influential orchestral pieces of the 20th century.

Leonard Bernstein : MASS (1971)
While Bernstein remains one of my favourite composers - and has been since my early childhood -  there is not a single work by him to which I can point that I don't have some problem with. MASS is the same - there are some parts in it that are genuinely great, on a level few composers ever reach. Other parts are not - let's leave it at that.

Emily Howell (AI) : Shadow Worlds, IV. Movement (2003)
In order to further diversify this list, I am happy to add a piece by one of the (for now) most famous AI composers. I found this piece and its devilishly tricky rhythm quite addictive.

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I try to keep this list very short. It is not meant to be comprehensive - also I will probably regular blog about music I like, and you will be able to use the label 'music' to find all those posts.