Here is a thread of some 20th-c. classical music I deem to be beautiful and fundamentally essential to Western culture.

In no particular order & with random commentaries, because it's 2020 and post-modernism is triumphant.

It's 1936, Poulenc lost his friend Pierre-Octave Ferroud and effectuates a pilgrimage to Rocamadour that will turn him back to the Catholic faith. The Litanies à la Vierge noire (three-part female/children choir + organ) directly follow his revelation.

The final scene of the Dialogue des Carmélites (1957) also exemplifies Poulenc's fervent faith in a more theatrical way, as each voice of the nuns singing a Salve Maria disappears after every sound of guillotine.

It seems that I can't stop sharing some Poulenc music so here is one of the greatest concerti of the 20th c. (1928), starring the glorious harpsichord.

Oh, and I could not end this Poulenc-mania without sharing the one melody I sang for my entrance at the @MaitriseRF (back in 2005...), here performed by the splendid Felicity Lott (who sings French mélodies like no one else).

Talking about the Maîtrise, here is the recording I participated in of Messiaen's Trois petits liturgies (1944), which are most succulent.

Keeping up with Messiaen, here is the opus dedicated to Exotic Birds (1955-6), full of colours and surprises. Since his youth, the composer was particularly fascinated by birds' singing, trained to become an ornithologist, and transcribed their ‘music‘.

I cannot forget to share Messiaen's opera, Saint François d'Assise (writing begun in 1973 & the opus was created in 1983), which is easily overlooked although it is an absolute gem. Again, Messiaen's passion for birds shines through the score.

I'm no expert when it comes to Ligeti & I find it difficult to choose between his works for violin (concerto), sacred music (e.g. Lux Aeterna), piano (e.g. Musica Ricercata), etc. so I'll stick with the latter.
Tell me what's your favourite Ligeti's work!

Diving into French mélodies again, here is the lovely Lili Boulanger whose work deserves to be better known. https://twitter.com/SalemLola/status/1279393304577277952

The must-listen Horizon Chimérique by Fauré whose genius influenced and inspired so many composers. https://twitter.com/SalemLola/status/1279398276735946752

Staying in the vein of French mélodies, here is Ravel's version of three poems by Stéphane Mallarmé. An absolute classic, which builds on orchestral experimentations of the time (e.g. Schönberg). https://twitter.com/SalemLola/status/1279398279055360000

Recital I (for Cathy), premiered in 1972, crunches together selected elements of Western music’s past into a postmodern stage work composed expressly for Cathy Berberian, mezzo-soprano and wife of Luciano Berio.

Instead of choosing any boring minimalist work, I'd rather pick Frederik Rzewski’ Mouton de Panurge (1969) which assumes a humorous self-sabotaging minimalist process thanks to additions and subtractions that lose the performers while playing.

Stravinsky’s Sacre du Printemps (1913) is one of the works written for the Paris season of Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes company (see also Weber's Le Spectre de la Rose & Borodin's Polovtsian Dances).

An absolute favourite from Stravinsky's ‘neoclassical period’: Apollon musagète (1928), which borrows massively to the tradition of French baroque music.

Heiner Goebbels (not the fascist, the other guy) might fall into the 21st-c. category but I'll add him nevertheless. I Went To The House But Did Not Enter (texts by T. S. Eliot, Blanchot, Kafka, Beckett) is a masterpiece that deserves better recognition.

Pierre Schaeffer, commonly described as the ‘inventor of musique concrète’, creates Écho d'Orphée in the early 1950s which will later be re-written by Pierre Henry (1988).

In lieu of the visually pleasing Metastasis’s score, here is Nuits (1968) by Xenakis, communist who fled Greece’s dictatorship. I genuinely don't believe that contemporary music has much* change since then.
(*before you get angry, there's room for nuance)

Irritatingly, there is little of Edith Canat de Chizy’s vocal music that has been recorded. Here is Visio (2015) based on Hildegard Von Bingen.

Lady Macbeth of Mzensk (1934) by Shostakovich is moved by an almost animalistic, primal force. The mise en scène of K. Warlikowski captures it perfectly.

Ok, Boris Godunov is *not* technically a 20th-c. work, but Mussorgsky's influence has been massive throughout Europe & the opera was adapted numerous times during the 20th c. by several composers, including Rimsky-Korsakov and Shostakovich.

This might not be the first thing people think about when they consider Bartók, but I have been listening a lot to his Hungarian and Romanian folk dances lately. What is your favourite work by Bartók?

I don't care if you prefer another piece by Strauss, Salomé (1905) is one of my favourite operas so here we go. Again, Van Hove’s mise en scène fits well.

With Strauss, I feel that I can't pursue my movement back in time. If I want to stay true to the theme of this thread, I must resist the temptation to quote Liszt or Wagner. So let's go forward again with Debussy’s masterpiece: Pelléas et Mélisande (1902).

Adding to this list a bit of Britten because I don't understand why some ppl have never listened to him although he might be one of the most brilliant British composers that ever existed (yes). The Spring Symphony (1949), for ex, is a great masterpiece. https://open.spotify.com/track/5WtJ2DP4hOexULu2sJg3zv?si=HvhC_kVHQCyp1kMA-WjqSg

Additionally, since it'll soon to be the season, everyone of you should be ready to have in their playlists the exceptional, the most marvelous ‘Ceremony of Carols’ (1942). I've sung this so many times, but can't find one of my own recordings
https://open.spotify.com/track/5atPokDFU91wXEazn2AM9T?si=S1IYgIxiSxS5EenQgO8Qew

Likewise, ‘A boy was born’ (premiered in 1934), one his first compositions to be published, exposes well Britten's relationship to tonality/modality: luminous and straightforward while always accompanied with a halo of sweetness and mystery. https://open.spotify.com/track/5XPUkf4MQIAQ7zgbxan4kJ?si=eVOKWhiyQYSHQT-gSyyWuA