My first printed music addition to the Modern Score collection here at Avax. All the scores were scanned by me – mostly from my university library and my reasonably extensive personal collection. Included are some of soloweb's Penderecki requests (more are on the way!), Golijov, Grisey, Gubaidulina, Harvey, Radulescu, Saariaho, Sciarrino, and Suslin. Every single one of these scores have been published after 1975 the most recent being published in 1999; these pieces are rather difficult to come by. More will be coming.

Two dazzling large-scale chamber pieces for small forces by the German composer and éminence grise Helmut Lachenmann performed impeccably by Yukiko Sugawara, Shizuyo Oka, and Lucas Fels. Released in 2001 by the ever industrious Austrian boutique avant recording house, Kairos.

Another fantastic Grisey piece – in my opinion his greatest piece. This last composition by Grisey is one of those eerie late works of art that portends the imminent death (even if it is tragic or sudden) of the creator. I think this was uploaded by iz a while ago, but I thought I may as well complete the Grisey set released by Kairos. Released in 2002 by my favorite Austrian boutique avant recording house, Kairos.

I realize that there is a huge Ustvolskaya following here at Avax (I'm looking at you, iz), and I found this up at Demonoid. These are three of her earlier pieces which show the influence of Shostakovich. Great playing: fierce, precise, loud, and terrifying, this is vintage Galina. Thanks to krasnyihleb, the original uploader. Released in 2001 by the Belgian label Megadisc Classics.

Naïve's two disc bundle of Pascal Dusapin's Etudes for Piano and his massive concerto for Piano and Orchestra, Á Quia. Requested by Interzone. If someone has this in lossless, please upload.

Der Regen, das Glas, das Lachen; Ohne Titel; Quadraturen IV for full orchestra, composed by the highly underrated Austrian composer, Peter Ablinger. 'He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.'
I've received many requests to re-post this Kairos release as FLAC. Here it is….

There is little doubt in my mind that Gérard Grisey is the most important French composer since Messiaen. He is, along with Tristan Murail, responsible for the 'Spectralist' movement in music, and is one of the greatest creative geniuses of the 20th century. Included on this 2008 Kairos release is a seldom performed 20-minute work for chamber orchestra, four percussionists, and two synthesizers, and a stunning work for twelve voices and tape.

Sciarrino has a vested interest in music from earlier times. For him, transcription is an art akin to translation and he infuses much of his own music with references to earlier masters; both of these discs are prime examples of that. Pagine & Canzoniere are transcriptions for Saxophone Quartet of music by Gesualdo, Bach, Scarlatti, anonymous Ars Nova pieces, Gershwin, and even Cole Porter. The main offer of the Winter & Winter disc Storie di altre storie juxtaposes his eerie transcriptions of Machaut, Scarlatti, and Mozart with his own compositional language.

If anything can be proven by listening to these Cds, it is that Rădulescu's music defies categorization. His music eludes what has unfortunately become the didactic and academic Spectralism that has taken a stranglehold in Parisian intellectual circles these days; instead he has developed massive textural sonorities – not reminescent of Ligeti or Xenakis – that recall Byzantine and Hindu music, or music he believes to be ancient and closer to the original harmonic overtone spectrum.

A composer of unconventional means, the Romanian-French Horaţiu Rădulescu quickly made a name for himself by infusing his music with a strange blend of spectral techniques and mysticism. This groundbreaking artist died very recently on September 25, 2008 at the age of 66.

Helmut Lachenmann has been a major figure in German music for nearly thirty years, his music heavily influencing not only other German-speaking composers (such as Beat Furrer or Wolfgang Rihm) but reaching beyond the German music world into France (Dusapin) and Italy (Sciarrino). The music on this CD, expertly conducted by the Hungarian composer Peter Eötvös, exemplifies his artistic ethos: the deconstruction of music into unexpected sound.

"I have attempted to shape a situation which is designed to give the listener the impression that he is in the middle of this 'space', that he is being directly addressed…even though he stands outside, and listens from without…"
-Matthias Pintscher

Salvatore Sciarrino's work for Voice and Instruments, Lohengrin, is an especially bizarre and foreign sounding piece, even for Sciarrino. The composer refers to this piece as an "Azione invisibile per solista, strumenti e voci" (invisible action for soloist, instruments, and voice) and is his take on the concept of anti-opera: a clear nod to Ligeti's Le Grand Macabre.

I think it's high time some Mario Davidovsky was posted on here. The Argentine-born Davidovsky is one of the giants of the American Avant-Garde, a pioneer of electronic music at the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center, and the protégé of Edgard Varèse. This music is heavy, intellectually-charged stuff; it is not for the faint of mind. Brought to you by one of New York's finest boutique recording studios, Arabesque Recordings.