It might blow apart solemn, hard-boiled notions of greatness, but it has to be the most joyous work on this list. Watch Roomful of Teet perform Caroline Shaw’s Partita 20 Caroline Shaw Partita (2013)Ĭaroline Shaw’s Partita, written for her own vocal octet Roomful of Teeth, is an explosion of energy cramming speech, song and virtually every extended vocal technique you can think of into its four “classical” dance movements. Richter writes about his composition | Listen on Spotify. Organum is a funereal organ solo, Shadow Journal a piece of ambient house, but the centrepiece is On the Nature of Daylight (since used on countless films and TV soundtracks), where ever-expanding layers of strings are used to heart-tugging effect.

The song cycle is linked by narration from Tilda Swinton, but the most compelling pieces don’t require words. Written in the run-up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq, The Blue Notebooks is Max Richter’s meditation on violence and war, one that was recorded in three hours. Read our review 21 Max Richter The Blue Notebooks (2004) The results are sparse, rugged and sensual quiet does not have to mean soft. More than any minimalist, she takes her cues from Couperin, Debussy and the paintings of Agnes Martin. Catlin Smith’s music is slow and quiet but it’s also lush. She leaves space around the material to consider it from this way and that, then sinks in deep. She holds the fabric between the fingers, she tests the fibres.

Read our review | Watch the world premiere performance at the Vatican 22 Linda Catlin Smith Piano Quintet (2014) His Stabat Mater for chorus and string orchestra, premiered and commissioned by Harry Christophers and the Sixteen, caught the public imagination, its message direct, immediate, radiant and impassioned. The prolific Scottish composer has made an impact on choral music, by drawing on his Roman Catholic roots, most recently in his Fifth Symphony, Le grand Inconnu, and in his Tenebrae Responsories. Photograph: Mark Allan 23 James MacMillan Stabat Mater (2016) Immediate … the Sixteen and Britten Sinfonia perform Stabat Mater, conducted by Harry Christophers.

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