Living Symphonists

[Dundonnell]

Corigliano was actually in my original list.

Norgard wasn't. I am afraid that his music is beyond my comprehension

[rkhenderson]

How about Sergei Slonimsky (b. 1932)? He composed his 27th symphony "To the memory of Myaskovsky" recently: http://www.ruslania.com/language-1/entity-6/context-321/details-156908.html
 
Robert

[rkhenderson]

Actually, I just found Slonimsky's 30th symphony written this year!!
http://www.ruslania.com/entity-6/context-321/details-157469.html

Robert

[ArturPS]

As a reactionary amateur symphonist myself, I find most those composers mentioned in this thread way above my head. Maybe I should have been born 150 years earlier.

Me too, I've written a symphony (I won't link it here, as I got a smack in the head the last time I tried to show my music in this forum and several other works but I can't stand the music of the last 100 years. None of the composers mentioned has yet taken hold of me.

[Mykulh]

Does anyone out there have detailed information about Sergei Slonimsky's later Symphonies,  such as titles, years of composition, etc? Only a few of them are listed on the website of the publisher Rusliana. Any and all data would be appreciated, acknowledged and listed in my Russian and Soviet Symphonies Discography.

[semloh]

I know this thread is about living symphonists, but I hope you'll forgive me for using it to tell you that the question of the world's greatest living composer has been settled beyond doubt!

According to a promo for one of his concerts, currently running on Australian TV, the world's "greatest living composer" is .... yes, you guessed it .....
Burt Bacharach!



OK - you can get back to the serious stuff now.... 

[Latvian]

According to a promo for one of his concerts, currently running on Australian TV, the world's "greatest living composer" is .... yes, you guessed it .....
Burt Bacharach!

I'm glad that question has been settled! (Pardon me while I vomit)

[dafrieze]

Those wacky Australians!  Actually, I like Burt Bacharach's music a lot, but I wouldn't even name him the greatest living pop composer of the 1960s (that would have to be Paul McCartney).  Still, this is not quite on the order of the French idolization of Jerry Lewis.

[Latvian]

On my way to work this morning I listened for the first time to the 1st Symphony by Thomas Sleeper (b.1956, American). A very enjoyable work, somewhat reminiscent (to me, at least) of Halvor Haug. Another Albany Records offering.

[eschiss1]

I recall a review of a CD of Sleeper's horn concerto (coupled with Ticheli's first symphony and van der Slice's Specters). Diverse music that I'm hoping to hear.

[John H White]

Quote:
Me too, I've written a symphony (I won't link it here, as I got a smack in the head the last time I tried to show my music in this forum and several other works but I can't stand the music of the last 100 years. None of the composers mentioned has yet taken hold of me.

    The people on this Forum to whom I've sent CDs of my 2nd symphony played on Sibelius Sounds have so far been too polite to make any comments about it!

[ArturPS]

Quote:
Me too, I've written a symphony (I won't link it here, as I got a smack in the head the last time I tried to show my music in this forum and several other works but I can't stand the music of the last 100 years. None of the composers mentioned has yet taken hold of me.

    The people on this Forum to whom I've sent CDs of my 2nd symphony played on Sibelius Sounds have so far been too polite to make any comments about it!

Well, my post got deleted, moved to /dev/null, thrown into the Ether, multiplied by 0 etc.

On topic, I wonder to what degree can a piece of music still be called a symphony nowadays. But then I might just be rambling...

[eschiss1]

Slightly tangentially
I know that Harald Genzmer died 4 years ago, but that's the thing- "living" has a tendency to fluctuate; I was typing, or speaking to someone on the phone, to someone about Genzmer in late December 2007, noting that he was Germany's among greater living symphonists or somesuch, when it occurred to me to check the "living" part - and he'd died (at age 98) two weeks before that point, as I recall...
Still, the one symphony I've heard (no.4) was rather good.

Some other living symphonists to consider, to drag this post on topic (semi-on topic. Their styles matter less to me, but I gather some of their styles are more or less at latest early-20th century or eclectic.)
Haven't heard Ross Edwards' symphonies, but he was born in 1943.
Gary Kulesha (born 1954) had a symphony premiered 1998.
James Cohn (born 1928) has had some symphonies recorded on Naxos though again, haven't heard them.
(Likewise so has Gloria Coates. ...
Besides the fact that her music really does not interest me, at least Bartók asked Cowell for supernumerary permission to use toneclusters that he had - I am guessing - independently invented; Coates claims in an interview (Naxos online podcast) to have been the first to have used them, if I recall, which just makes me shake my head. ... erm. ... anyway.)
and 7 symphonies by Carl Vine (also *1954).

[Christo]

Composer Paul Wilkinson from Halifax mentioned on Twitter that he finished a Symphony in the last months, `after six years of work'. I wouldn't be surprised if his style were to Colin's (Dundonnell's) taste. 

[vandermolen]

Composer Paul Wilkinson from Halifax mentioned on Twitter that he finished a Symphony in the last months, `after six years of work'. I wouldn't be surprised if his style were to Colin's (Dundonnell's) taste. 

Is that Halifax UK or Canada (or the Halifax banking group  )?