An observation about "Modern" classical music.

You've got to try some of Webern's early works (his lieders for instance) and then move slowly up in time. 20th century music will probably never be your favorite but I can promise you'll do some wonderfull discoveries. When you're in that mood, nothing comes close to it.

Sorry I did not see this post until now. Great modern music is still being made and much of it is ascetic and atonal. Much of it, and just like all music 90%, is not very good, but that 10%....!

Technically playing modern classical is extremely demanding on both the listener and the players. For most people these days classical music is an acquired taste and modern classical music is even more of an acquired taste for both the players and the listner. But in the end it is highly subjective whether the ends justifies the means. I happened to believe it is well worth the effort. And most players do too, at least the ones I have talked with. Because in these cases, the composer and the musicians can talk about the performance together, and actually change things around if need be. It was quite informative talking with Gidon Kremer after his performance of Schnitke's 2nd Violin Sonata, and how the two made a few changes that would enhance the performance and enhance the piece aestetically. He showed me his score, with all the changes marked that the two had made. You cannot say that about a Beethoven or Schubert piece at all. Beethoven who was a great pianist never played his sonatas the same way twice, he did not follow his own markings! OK so who is say which way is correct, good question.

My moniker says I love Schubert, and I do! But I would rank some of the moderns as my favorites too, but after Schubert, Beethoven and Brahms, I would go see a Schnitke, Gorecki, Bartok or Penderecki piece before I would see something like Mozart or Bruckner. These guys are inventive, imaginative and just plain aestetically involving.

BTW, what radio station plays Modern classical music, I would love to know that one!!!

I think the atonal only stuff is not interesting to me. I don't mind if it's part of a song, but you need balance. And music should not be a test of your will. It should have pleasing qualities. Atonal works in songs that also have points of resolution throughout the song such as jazz and some modern music are enjoyable to me.

I enjoy modern classical music when done right. I guess it has just been a lack of effort on my part to seek it out. I would assume musical development will happen whether there is a big audience or not.

Robm321: hmmm....done right.....hmmm, what does that mean?An audience has nothing to do with it. Either music as art stands or falls on being autonomous. If it is a slave of fashion then it is not autonomous and therefore not art. In fact, there has been only one time in history that musical art and popularity coincided, the early 19th century. This also coincided with the rise of the middle class and its attitudes towards all art, the period of Beethoven(and only Beethoven)the first of the autonomous composers. And once the middle class made classical music...well... middle class, Classical music as art music had to become even more autonomous from the crudeness of the middle class. But it is more than alienation from the middle class, it had to do with what art itself sees, a metaphor for the human condition. If Beethoven was the voice of the rise of the middle class, then someone like Schnittke has to show the alienation of man in light of his conquering of nature itself through the processes developed in the Enlightenment. And boy can Schnittke show the aesthetics of alienation through his music.

I'm listening to Penderecki's Auschwitz Oratorio as we speak. This is as moving and as viscerally captivating (not to mention disturbing) as anything I've ever heard. Give it a try if you're ready for a very intense musical experience.

I'm not sure I agree with Schubertmaniac on the definition of art, but his assertion that modern music expresses as wide a range of emotion as any in history in right on. In fact, some would argue that with increasing harmonic complexity comes increasing ability to explore the nuances of the human condition. Sounds pretentious, but I think it's true in many cases.