I just discovered an excellent, modernist but relatively accessible
American composer.  His name: George Barati (1913-1996).  Born and trained
in Hungaria, Barati moved to the US in 1938.  He became American citizen
in 1944.  Well known as a cellist and a conductor, Barati was also a great
composer!  Barati's works are colorful and powerful, direct but always
subtle.  His music sometimes reminds me of William Schuman and Bartok's
latest works, especially the Violin Concerto No 2.  In fact, Barati is
often drawing on the serial technique, but tonal references are not absent
(this music is not conservative nor radical).  Barati's music is difficult
to classify and describe, like most great music!  And you can now discover
it for a few $$$:

George BARATI
Sympnony no 1
Chant of Light
Chant of Darkness*

Budapest SO - Laszlo Kovaks
*Czech Radio Symphony Orchestra
Naxos "American Classics" - 8.559063

 From my perspective, Chant of Darkness is by far the most moving work
on this excellent CD. Barati composed it in 1993-1994, after his daughter
died from breast cancer...  (Three years later, Barati was murdered in Los
Gatos, California.) Once you heard Chant of Darkness once, it seems
difficult to forget such an experience.

On Barati, see the following site:

   http://library.ucsc.edu/reg-hist/barati.html

And I just found two contrasting reviews concerning this CD:

   http://www.classicstoday.com/review.asp?ReviewNumF08

   http://www.musicweb.uk.net/classrev/2002/Mar02/barati.htm

Daniel Beland