MatthiasRat here!

I frequently browse Youtube for classical music; a lot of what I find is not that interesting, but there's a ton of great stuff out there. Pieces I truly fall in love with I'll do what I can to buy them on CD. In the last couple of months I found these new composers, both of whom I think will be regarded as masters of the early 21st century, Lee Actor and Philip Sawyers.

First we have Lee Actor's Violin Concerto:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vzo.....5oelzhcGskYFID

The opening movement is deeply serious and full of drama. The basic material is stated from the outset and Actor draws searching melodies and dramatic rigor from every note. The Violin opens with a melody in double-stops and the material assigned perfectly fits the character of the instrument. The second movement is slow and meditative, while the finale is a romp full of color and bravura. Each century has its great Violin Concertos; Lee Actor's opens this century with a statement that belongs in the standard repetoire.

Also on the same CD is his 2nd Symphony and Timpani Concerto. The Timpani Concerto is a light-hearted romp, but the 2nd Symphony is an intense and deeply serious work built entirely upon a dotted-note rhythm that dominates nearly every measure. The Harmonic language is very accessible and shows an attentiveness to color and an openness to letting the melody have the final say. Both are available on Youtube and well worth a listen.


The second composer is Philip Sawyers. His musical language is harder-edged and he uses 12-tone techniques in some of his music without actually employing strict serialism; but he also gives a tonal backbone to his music that provides an excellent and approachable blend fully in keeping with the new Romanticism that I find so appealing in recent music.

On the CD I bought are three pieces. The first, "The Gale of Life" is a breathless explosion of sound guaranteed to make you sit up and take notice. This serves perfectly as a Concerto opener or the first piece after the intermission to prove that the orchestra is ready for more! The second, "Symphonic Music for Strings & Brass" is the only work composed in the 20th century and shows the more tonal side (and written when Sawyers was just 21 years old) as well as highlighting plainchant and evokes an ancient sound-world without falling into a grass-is-greener idealism. The meat and potatoes is the First Symphony. The opening movement is dissonant and very dark, while the second is a beautiful adagio that reveals the tonal side as in the previous piece; the scherzo is a unrelenting tour-de-force (which inspired "The Gale of Life" actually) and it leads directly into the Finale which brings back the darkness of the first movement, transforming it into an affirmation of power and triumph. The applause at the end is well-deserved.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQx.....4QwCGeRFy__LIL

I am eager to hear more from both of these fantastic new composers!

Dominus tecum