Music Chat: Why The List of 10 GREATEST LIVING COMPOSERS Is Impossible to Determine

In the course of our discussion of the 20 "10 Greatest Living Conductors" one of you mentioned, snidely, that we should try to come up with a list of the 10 Greatest Living Composers (suggesting that such a thing doesn't exist). I think that's an impossible (and rather cynical) ask. Here's why.

[@james.t.herman]

I think that we tend to overestimate what individual composers actually contribute, even the great ones. Mozart, for example, did not invent the classicist stye he worked with, or the system of functional tonality, or the musical instruments and conventions of writing for them, etc. Most of what he put into his compositions was the product of an entire musical culture, that took centuries for that culture to produce. Mozart's own contributions were remarkable, of course, but they were a relatively small part of what went into his scores. So I do think it's a lot more difficult today even to listen for the great composers, because there is no longer a shared consensus about what musical styles and techniques to work with and listen for. All the Baroque composers wrote in the Baroque style, the Classicists with Classicism, etc. But today, you learn composition by studying an entire range of historical styles and techniques, and then you're told, have at it, put your own language together out of all that, or anything new you might be able to come up with. The contemporary Canadian composer Samuel Andreyev, for example, says that every piece he writes constitutes its own genre, where an Italian opera composer wrote all his compositions within the genre of Italian opera. So how do we make sense of the multiplicity of genres and styles and compositional techniques before us in contemporary music? It's a tough problem.

[@johnmontanari6857]

One criterion for present musical greatness that needs a serious debunking is whether we think the music will stand the test of time. What gives us the slightest idea that we can predict what the future will choose to hold on to after we're dead and past caring? Previous musical taste-setters had a pretty lousy record at this game, and I doubt that we're any better than it. How many Pulitzer-winning pieces are in the standard repertoire? Composing for future acclaim is a fool's errand, often resulting in music that suffers from what Stephen Sondheim dubbed "importantitis" (referring, if I remember correctly, to Leonard Bernstein's late works). Besides, when I hear something new, I couldn't care less what future listeners will think of it. If it tickles my musical receptors now, and maybe along the way shows me something new about what it is to be human in 2022, that's good enough for me. It doesn't have to be classical, either, a distinction of increasing irrelevance. I listen to something new every day I can, and am a happier music maven for it. The fact that I'm unlikely to ever return to most it doesn't trouble me in the least. The joy is in the discovery.

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

Very well said!

[@samuelheddle]

what i always like to say is that while what I call "capital-G Greatness" exists in terms of historical import and influences, that's a completely different question as to listening to the music that you enjoy. There are Great composers from all ears that I find chores to listen to, and there are works by "minor" composers that I enjoy far more than the entire catalogs of some "Greats". "Greatness" does matter in the sense that it has influence on the kinds of music that get created, and on artistic inspirations- but this is more a topic of historical interest that you don't necessarily have to get into if you listen for your own pleasure.

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

@@subplantant No, it doesn't, because that was not my argument.

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

@@subplantant Thank you.

[@vrfvfdcdvgtre2369]

Indeed, it remains to be seen, if atonal music by contemporary composers will stand the ultimate test of time, as contemporary scholars are so eager to argue. My guess: the beloved names will remain so, till the end, with very few, if any, joining the list. Sorry, all the fans of Boulez.

[@shadowhegog9798]

I feel like I would put people like John Williams, Arvo Pärt, Sofia Gubaidulina, and Unsuk Chin on the list as a start.

[@jacquesracine9571]

What about 10 interesting living composers we should know about?

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

That's a different question, certainly.

[@poturbg8698]

John Williams is 90--quick! put him on the list while he's still around. And no anti-movie music snobbery, please.

[@tmorganriley]

Even ignoring his grand film scores and assuming only for the sake of argument he never makes a foothold in the halls of the symphony orchestra, I suspect his ample output of short-length Americana, marches, and other works for local concert band or wind ensemble means he is likely to still be in their repertoire fifty or one hundred years hence, in the same way Copland, M. Gould, L. Anderson, or L. Bernstein are.

[@steveschwartz8944]

Eminently sensible. I seem to listen to more contemporary music than many, and the most I could come up with is the list of the living composers I like best. And the great part is, it's not all the same.

[@FranzKaernBiederstedt]

Great and inspiring video as usual, David, Thanks a lot. I totally agree with everything you said here. Being a composer myself and being interested in a quite huge variety of contemporary music that ranges from all sorts of "neo" styles (neo-romantic, neo-classicistic, neo-baroque, neo-minimalistic...) to some very experimential and avantgarde ones, it would be very hard for me to choose ten most important composers from the big number of which I find most interesting and inspiring (due to very different reasons). In some I appreciate how they are able to fill traditional materials and sounds with new sense and purpose, in others I am surprised by things I have never heard before at all. I pity a lot, that one's view on which new music one is getting opportunities to listen to is often influenced by the country one is living in. Despite of internet and its opportunities of connecting the world, concert programmes of orchestras and ensembles are often very much limited to composers from their own cultural spheres. I'm living in Germany, where I'm composing and teaching music theory and composition - and attending concerts. It's very rare that I get to hear music by non-European composers here in German concert programmes. I am always interested in learning about composers from out of the box, from different cultural realms. I am half-American through my US-American mother, so I guess from her I inherited a certain openness and ideological freedom. Other countries have come up with totally different ideas about what is to be considered new music. Post-war Germany has for a long time been indoctrinated by either mandatory serialistic and complex approaches of atonality in the FRG, not allowing anything that connects to tradition in any way, shape or form, or, on the other hand, mandatory socialistic realism in the GDR with the prohibition of any avantgarde-experimentation. It's only in the last 20 years that Germany opens up to a bigger variety of coexisting styles outside of certain schools one had to follow to be of any relevance. How big on the other hand is the variety of music that has been composed during the last hundred years for example in the US! There are very different lines existing side by side, some more influental, on a broader scale, some more individually restricted, but all being allowed to coexist peacefully and to represent actuality and contemporaryness (is there a word like that?) by different means. How individually different are George Gershwin, Aaron Copland, Roy Harris, William Schuman, Lou Harrison, Samuel Barber, Elliot Carter, John Corigliano, Jennifer Higdon, Carter Pann, John Adams, John Luther Adams, John Cage, Roger Sessions, Steve Reich, Philip Glass, Leonard Bernstein, Eric Whitacre, David Conte, Terry Riley, Gunter Schuller, La Monte Young, Henry Cowell, Leo Ornstein, Lukas Foss, Alan Hovhaness, Vincent Persichetti, Walter Piston, Howard Hanson, Jason Eckardt, Dolores Catherino, Taylor Brook, Andrew Norman etc.? They cover a vast variety of styles and philosophies. And about many of these I learned only via KZbin, not from German concert programmes (why are Barber or Copland being played here and Roy Harris or William Schuman never?). I guess, a list of the 10 most important living composers would be very different if made in Germany or the US or South America or Japan or Turkey. There still is too little of openness between different cultural spheres and traditions, although it certainly improves. So building a ground for a broader worldwide consensus on common criteria for such a list is very difficult if not impossible.

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

Thank you for sharing your perspective. You raise very real issues. It is interesting just how "local" so much of this still is, but I'm not surprised.

[@edwinbaumgartner5045]

Well, you're right, of course, but there's a problem: One does need guidelines. There's so much good music and even more less good music out there that one never can listen to all of that, and sometimes it's pure coincidence that one makes a discovery. F.e.: I searched for Rolf Liebermann, my record store ordered mistakenly Lowell Liebermann - and I'm happy that this happened. One coincidence more: You mentioned Jonathan Leshnoff. I confess, I never have heard of him (and I think myself rather well informed - but, of course, with an european center), had a few moments of listening on KZbin and ordered just now all what's recorded of his works. So, it would be welcomed (at last by me), if you wouldn't talk about the GREATEST living composers, but of the living composers one should listen to.

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

Makes sense to me.

[@shemammal]

Great chat. I was lucky enough to have had a copy of the Earl Wild version decades ago. I share your admiration for this genuine concerto. My other favourite Gershwin recording is the classic Bernstein "An American In Paris". Big Gershwin!

[@burke9497]

Your video on the ten greatest living composers made me realize how very few of the composers I listen to are actually alive. I suppose that is true for most of us, but it really struck me with your video. I love that you mentioned Honeck. Over his time in Pittsburgh he has become one of my all time favorites. And he’s still alive! J

[@providence51]

Hi Dave, just to let you know I am enjoying the channel immensely and I appreciate everything you have taught me. Keep on posting Elaine

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

Thanks very much.

[@Bachback]

There are quite a few music lovers who say that no great music has been composed since: 1900, 1920, 1940, 1960, 1980. Take your pick. These views mystify me. During the Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries in the American tradition alone, you have Charles Ives, George Gershwin, Aaron Copland, Samuel Barber, Elliott Carter, Giancarlo Menotti, Leonard Bernstein, George Rochberg, Ned Rorem, George Crumb, Morton Feldman, Philip Glass, John Adams, Aaron Jay Kernis, etc. My take is that audiences are slowly coming to understand that the best Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries music is Not Noise but Rather Glorious.

[@johnfowler7660]

The last orchestral composition to enter the basic repertoire of symphony orchestras (not counting pops concerts) was Leonard Bernstein's Overture to Candide (1956).

[@Bachback]

@@johnfowler7660 John Adams: Harmonium, Violin Concerto, Lollapalooza, Short Ride in a Fast Machine, City Noir, Harmonielehre, Fearful Symmetries, and The Wound Dresser have all entered the repertoire. Please watch the Proms performance of Harmonium on KZbin. It will knock your socks off. The late symphonies of Shostakovich have entered the repertoire. I could go on and on.

[@johnfowler7660]

@@Bachback Basic repertoire, not repertoire. You need a lot of performances.

[@Bachback]

@@johnfowler7660 Then of course there is Benjamin Britten: A Midsummer Night's Dream, War Requiem, and Death in Venice.

[@johngreen1176]

Thank you for your very interesting series on conductors and composers. On an entirely different topic, I was wondering if you could do a video on the best recordings of Tchaikovsky's Sleeping Beauty? It would be interesting to hear your perspective.

[@samuelheddle]

One of my main criteria for a truly great composer is historical influence, because this is one of the few things you can, at least to an extent, objectively determine. Unfortunately this means that it's really hard to actually consider anyone in recent memory-as far as having tremendous impact on the development of music at large, you certainly can consider the likes of La Monte Young/Cage/Reich, but past like the 1970s you get into territory where actually determining influence becomes really hard or impossible because we're too close to the music.

[@Bachback]

@@subplantant What about Glass, Reich, Part, Adams, Kernis, and Ades.

[@willgreen2196]

Dave, what a fantastic video. Wow! Thank you!! How do you feel about Arvo Part?

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

I like a lot of his work, but some of his longer, more austere pieces strike me as pretty empty.

[@murraylow4523]

Hi Dave, yes agree with so much here. I expect you are right re Duke Ellington for example. Thing is, unlike 8n the C18 we can evaluate contemporary/recent work much more easily and rapidly, thanks to broadcasts, recordings etc so it’s not quite the same, maybe. As you say, there’s never been more opportunity! I certainly can’t keep up with it all. But there is arresting and great music out there by the living anyone can hear with a budget of course with a click on Amazon or similar, or a good classical radio station maybe. Merely because no one has mentioned in the comments I just ordered the new recording of Abrahamsen’s “Schnee” - can’t wait as I’ve never heard it and other recordings and live things of his work have convinced me that, well, here’s something I really haven’t quite heard before, but is worth my time….

[@johnwright7557]

I have the new recording of Schnee and it is like nothing else I have ever heard. As the Gramophone critic has noted in the magazine’s current issue, it’s best to listen to it on your back in utter stillness and let the music waft over you. If you haven’t heard Abrahamsen’s let me tell you with Barbara Hannigan, I highly recommend that too!

[@murraylow4523]

@@johnwright7557 thanks, I felt that way about his string quartets. I have heard “let me tell you” and was very impressed. Now for the lying flat on my back experience:)

[@christopherpickles7541]

It must be very difficult being a composer these days. For much of history people's listening was dominated by contemporary music, and it was often a local affair - Bach at Leipzig, Haydn at Esterhaza, Mozart in Prague (Vienna when he was lucky) etc. Brahms felt the weight of Beethoven's footsteps behind him - how much more must a would be composer nowadays feel oppressed by the weight of musical history? It's not like that with popular music - some of us may still listen to the "classics" of the 60's and 70's (and earlier) but it has always been a contemporary scene and still is. Musical talent is going to be increasingly drawn down this pathway.

[@samuelheddle]

"oppressed by the weight of musical history" to some extent is why guys like Boulez did what they did and said the things they said. of course, this was only part of the modernist movement at large, which made more sense when the grand history and traditions of European culture led to two astonishingly bloody wars. to an extent post-modern art tries to reckon with this, but too often ends with art which itself seems consumed by the past. i do like a bit of polystylistic stuff, though - Rzewski and Schnittke are always fun listens.

[@scottgilesmusic]

As a classical, jazz and rock guy I’ll tell you…it is hard all over!

[@vrfvfdcdvgtre2369]

"Mozart was contemporary etc." Dead great composers did not compose atonal "music", which is dead on arrival. Sure, the academics love it, and claim it will be hugely popular, just you wait until everyone is dead. Well, my bet is: Most of it does not die with the composer, it dies with the premiere. Deservedly so.

[@vrfvfdcdvgtre2369]

@@samuelheddle Oh, humanity will have such fun, I´m sure, listening to atonal music, on Mars, drinking bug milk to survive, marvelling at the beautiful scenery. Sounds to me like most contemporary composers already live there.

[@samuelheddle]

@@vrfvfdcdvgtre2369 well, a genre literally called "noise" is popular enough for people to make livings doing it, so we never really know, do we?

[@dominickelleher2685]

Dave, you remind me of Dom Deluise! Please do a detailed account on recordings of Paul Hindemith, BA Zimmermann and Wolfgang Rihm!

[@71pupu]

Got it!! Thanks a ton!

[@woongcho7709]

"The more dead, the better it is." I laughed hard. Then, I felt a little sad. Even in pop music, such tremendous talents like Nick Drarke and Laura Nyro didn't get recognition they deserve during their lifetime. In this classical music world, even great DEAD composers still aren't getting enough recognition: Respighi, Villa-Lobos, K. A Hartmann and countless others. Their music has been recorded, but recordings are concentrated on a few well-known pieces and I used to think many classical composers were one-hit wonders. I couldn't be more wrong. I am quite skeptical of whether things will get better in this classical music world, which is suffering from so much pride and prejudice to a point where a so-called tier system is so firmly established. That said, I would like to encourage you, david, to make any top ten lists you can think of. i think that would be the best way to alert people to greatness that we have not been aware of. More importantly, it is fun!:) Thank you.

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

That is the best reason of all...thank you.

[@Tompiano999]

Hi Dave, one of the finest living composers is Stephen Hough. Some lovely music written in the last 20 years and very modern, obviously.

[@stevenmsinger]

My favorite living or recently dead composers: 1) Christopher Rouse (Listen to Symphony 2 and the Flute Concerto conducted by Eschenbach) 2) Jennifer Higdon (Listen to "All Things Majestic" on Naxos or Hilary Hahn's version of the violin concerto.) 3) Michael Daugherty (Listen to the Metropolis Symphony conducted by Zinman) 4) Thomas Ades (There's a wonderful Anthology of his work on EMI but also search out Asyla.) 5) John Corigliano (Listen to his First Symphony conducted by Barenboim or any version of his Red Violin.) 6) Gyorgy Ligeti (So much to choose from but Sony has a Masterworks box.) 7) Joan Tower (Listen to the Stroke Violin Concerto on Naxos.) 8) Sofia Gubaidulina (So much to choose from but there's a new disc Dialog with Andris Nelsons.) 9) David Bruce (You gotta hear Gumboots with the Carducci Quartet.) 10) Mason Bates (Listen to Mothership with the Boston Modern Orchestra Project.)

[@anthonycook6213]

Ligeti died about 15 years ago.

[@stevenmsinger]

@@anthonycook6213 yeah, but he was really good.

[@anthonycook6213]

@@stevenmsinger Mr. Hurwitz has characterized my point of view as "nihilistic nonsense," so pay no attention. Bye.

[@haavejrgenseger3362]

Hello, Dave. I justed wanted to know if you are familiar with what I at least consider to be the most exciting young norwegian composer, Kristine Tjøgersen (born 1983). Unfortunately there are not many recordings of her works yet, (I'm sure there will be in the future), but there's plenty of great content of hers on this very channel. She has got a very eclectic background, which translates well into many of her works.

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

I don't know her, so thanks for the recommendation.

[@scottgilesmusic]

The ten best living composers: Probably have not been published nor recorded.

[@Craig_Wheeler]

Of course you're right, Dave, but I'd still like to give a shout out to a hilarious guy that's a very talented composer that I've known back to his UCLA days; I'm very proud of him and his accomplishments and even though he's busy he always has time for his friends: Mister Jake Heggie. 💛🎶 Within the pantheon of your discussion I have no idea what his place is but I'll give him this; he's a living working musician/composer and he's making a living at it. So many don't, unfortunately. 🤔

[@ABC_Guest]

I think the difficulty with coming up with a list of the "10 Greatest Living Composers" has less to do with a lack of recordings - we can make do with what we have - but rather the inherent level of subjectivity & how much your personal musical preferences would influence such a list. There is such a wide range of classical music being composed today, that it's often a matter of comparing apples and oranges.

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

Very true.

[@jimfaust534]

Mr. Hurwitz, apologies for veering off topic, but what, in your opinion, is the best recording of Gounod's "Faust?"

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

No problem, but it is off topic and I won't discuss it here.

[@stevecook8934]

I'm going to limit myself to composers who are not decomposing and whose music I actually listen to repeatly: John Adams, Arvo Pärt, Esa Pekka Salonen, Philip Glass, Thomas Adès, Sofia Gubaidulina, and Jennifer Higdon.

[@Bachback]

Good list but am not too familiar with Jennifer Higdon. What is a good starter piece for her?

[@stevecook8934]

@@Bachback Thank you. She has written a lot of concertos - some for the usual instruments such violin or piano - and some for less frequent used instruments in the concerto context such as percussion or soprano saxophone. Try the harp concerto. If memory serves, Dave recommended it.

[@Bachback]

@@stevecook8934 Will check out the harp concerto.

[@coasterfrk100]

And her concerto for orchestra

[@MrInterestingthings]

Excellent post! Anyone who watches you knows you keep up and the ones you cite deFreitas, DeHartmann,Crumb etc.[I can guess you might not care for Wuorinen butI bet you like ElliottCarter(always fascinating!]. I watch the Grawemeyer , Pulitzer prizes and Schonberg Prizes and nominees . Iagree it is impossible to know who or even what "serious art " music people will be listening to . Suppose computer music or new artificial instruments become a popular trend . If you're looking for knownothings "kids" generally who are composing in 18th century styles one just laughs.Those who study and have good composition professors don't look backward except tolearn they sure aren't using I_IV-V modulations (many jazz composersand I suppose even art/university type composers can do this in interesting new ways )

[@johnfowler7660]

We have not had a World's Greatest living Composer since 1999. I was born in 1949. Back then EVERYBODY agreed that Igor Stravinsky was the World's Greatest Composer. I was taught in kindergarten (1954) that Stravinsky was the World's Greatest Composer. It hadn't changed by the time I graduated from college (1971). Life was easier back then. Stravinsky had been the World's Greatest Composer since March 25, 1918 (when Debussy surrendered the title). Stravinsky finally gave up the title on April 6, 1971, after being the undisputed world champion for 53 years. Can any composer match this record? After Stravinsky's death, EVERYBODY agreed that the World's Greatest Composer was Dimitri Shostakovich. Shostakovich held the title for only four years, until August 9, 1975, after which matters became a bit more complicated. No more agreement. Britten, Barber and Bernstein had their proponents, but I personally gave the title to the always reliable Aaron Copland. Not everyone agreed, but I figured Copland was the World's Greatest Composer for the next fifteen years until his death on December 2, 1990. The three Bs had died by then (Bernstein died just two months before he would have inherited the title from Copland), and there was no obvious front-runner. I finally settled on Joaquin Rodrigo, who had at least composed one composition with basic repertoire status. Rodrigo held on for nine years until July 6, 1999, after which the title was officially declared Vacant.

[@samuelheddle]

this is a very liberal use of the term "Everybody" here. i certainly wouldn't agree- i'd say the greatest composer working post-Stravinsky was Steve Reich or John Cage, while others might go for Boulez, Shostakovich, or even Adams. I think the most consensus post-Stravinsky "great" among current composers would be Ligeti (based on surveys of current contemporary composers)

[@johnfowler7660]

@@samuelheddle By "everybody" I mean damn near everybody. Were you around then?

[@johnfowler7660]

@@samuelheddle We need to set up some rules. The World's Greatest Composer should have composed at least one work that has entered the basic repertoire. It doesn't have to stay there after his death, but it couldn't hurt.

[@Don-md6wn]

@@samuelheddle A 2019 BBC Music Magazine survey of contemporary composers on the greatest 50 composers of all time had Ligeti at #6, Cage at #31, Stockhausen at #44, Boulez at #48 and Handel and Dvorak outside the top 50.

[@Don-md6wn]

@@johnfowler7660 That's a problem with picking the top 10 composers or conductors or anything else. You need to start with criteria that people can agree on or we're all just talking past each other.

[@shimoncrown]

Okay - I buy your arguments. However, I would be really interested if you could devote more time to contemporary music and its composers. One specific question that I do have is can you identify any particular schools in modern serious music. The only one I am familiar with is minimalism which I happen to like a lot but there are many artists with other styles. Can they be classified into schools?

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

I don't find those classifications to be meaningful anymore. It's a free-for-all.

[@Scottlp2]

1. Alas no longer living, but Hovaness produced wonderful music and lots of recordings. 2. Still disconnect between music people want to hear and “difficult” music which still gets programmed, but which most people still don’t want to listen to.

[@ralphbruce1174]

Maybe just a list of 10 living composers for who you like the music you didn't have to be exhaustive.

[@josephromance3908]

This makes a number of fair points. But the underlying, unstated premise is that we can only make such lists when we have some very firm foundation and that a consensus is achieved. But I would think someone asking for a list of the top 10 contemporary composers or near contemporary composers is well aware that the list is tentative and should not be taken as set in stone. Maybe the list is not even that likely to be close to the consensus list of 2200. However, it still would be interesting to know who you think is a likely to be on such a list. It gives one insight into what you are listening to. Furthermore, think about it, wouldn't it be wonderful to have a list from a well informed listener in 1825 -- who they thought were the greatest composers! I would find it such a list fascinating and informative. Finally, if we take this position that we can't know who the greatest composers of today to its logical conclusion are we not saying we can't judge composers of today at all?

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

I don't think you quite have my point. WE don't need a "very firm foundation," nor do we need a consensus. What we need is information that we can all share. I have no problem coming up with a list, but in my opinion it would not be meaningful, although I'm flattered that some might be interested in my thinking (and for that reason I might do it, as a subject for another talk). More to the point, I was addressing a specific question asked by a commentator. He did not say "Who are your favorite living composers." He said, "There are no great living composers." That is a very different proposition, and as you yourself I think suggest, a rather pointless one.

[@josephromance3908]

@@DavesClassicalGuide Inasmuch as you were taking on the point "there are no great living composers" I am with you 100%. I get your point.I think such a suggestion is just daft. But I think making very tentative lists based on radically incomplete knowledge is fun and can be enlightening. Provided, of course, we don't take it too seriously, creating such a list is simply just fun. I would suggest that such lists would exist in some gray area of "favorite/great". One would essentially be saying these are my favorite composers who, if I had to bet, might be considered great someday.

[@ewaldsteyn469]

From my experience is seems that by far the majority of lovers of classical music today think that there are simply NO GREAT LIVING COMPOSERS around today. For most the issue will probably be not to try find the 10 best living composers, but rather to try find ANY living composers even worth listening to, under the impression that the unlistenable nonsense of Boulez, Stockhausen and the rest of the so-called avant garde are the only classical music that has been composed over the last 50 years (some may find my description of the avant garde's music as offensive- but I don't care - I find it offensive that their theoretical scientific experiments conducted with musical instrument have been paraded as music - it is simply not - only those few who understand the experiment can bare to listen to it - that excludes 99% of lovers of classical music ). But most people only think today that great classical music are not being composed simply because, as you rightly said, people are not listening. We are, in my opinion, living in one of the most exciting times ever in terms of what are being composed today, with a wider range of styles used than ever in the history of classical. I currently already have a list off over 50 contemporary classical music composers who are composing very fine music and music that most lovers of classical music will be able to appreciate. The problem is that very few of them have thus far been recorded commercially. However, KZbin have become a magnificent platform for contemporary composers to showcase their talent. I got to know 90% of these composers though uploads onto YT of live performances of their music. And nowadays the recording quality of these live performances are just getting better and better. This is really a very exciting time to search for and discover new contemporary composers off classical . The biggest challenge try to get the info, the names of these composers and where people can find their music out to a larger audience so that the majority of lovers of classical music can discover how much great and exciting music are being composed right their noses while most of them do no even have a clue that this is actually happening.

[@williamwhittle216]

Rather than best, how about favorites who died within the last "nn" years? Rautavaara would be a good selection,

[@murraylow4523]

Yes I had this thought. It’d be fairer to have a sort of moving wall of evaluation so we could talk about the previous 30/ 40 years or so.

[@bbailey7818]

When Shaw was a music critic, he promoted Hermann Goetz and dismissed Brahms. Ya pays yer money and takes yer cherce.

[@waverly2468]

Esa-Pekka Salonen once said he thought the music of Beethoven will someday become obsolete, much like Renaissance music is today (for the most part). I found that hard to believe, but who knows? Check out "Sonata in Darkness" by Michael Giacchino if you haven't already seen "The Batman".

[@classicalperformances8777]

i can';t believe he said that. did he really? that says alot about him and I do believe him not to be a good prophete