Peter Varley wrote:

>For example, I hadn't realised that Schittke's style had changed.  Up to now,
>I've been ignoring his music on the grounds that I'd heard some of the
>polystylistic stuff and decided it didn't appeal to me.  How does his more
>recent music compare with (for example) Vasks or Kancheli?

I think Schnittkes style change quite a lot somewhere in the eighties.
The weird and crazy, sometimes agressive part was lost - he was no longer
a rebel but an established composer.  Especially the polystylism is not any
more so evident in his later works (8ties and 9ties).  Musically there are
not many links to Kancheli or Vasks, I think, but maybe spiritually.  All
three are in a way (not a negative way for me) sad composers, there music
has a certain kind of melancholy.  Schnittke is maybe a bit more variable
in the musical material he uses and a bit more complicated than Kancheli.
You can compare this nicely listening to the CD on ECM which couples
Schnittkes and Kanchelis viola concerto.  All three I regard as very fine
composers, by the way!

>BTW, the only currently-active composer I'm sure of is Kancheli...

Part, Tuur, Landowski, MacMillan, Birtwistle, Goehr, Maxwell Davis, Rihm,
Gubaidulina, Fedele, Rautavara, MaCabe, Trojahn, Silvestrov, Crumb, Ligeti,
Kurtag, Vasks, Sumera, Tamberg, Borz, Rouse, Danielpour, Carter, Dutilleux
and many many more.....

Achim Breiling