Contemporary Piano-not simplistic

[annis]

Hello everyone,

I'm looking for contemporary piano pieces which aren't reduced to an arpeggio in the left and a simple melody in the right hand. I've been searching for hours on youtube and wikipedia most i've found was very similar and lacking something special and more complex -- by complex i don't mean insanely difficult, just with more depth and beauty. Of course new-age is very relaxing and to people who are new to classical music, it may seem to be the pure essence of beauty. Yet i'm not quite satisfied with that. Where are the genius composers of our time? Or did they die out -which is my teacher's opinion-...?

What do you think? And what are your favorite contemporary composers? (if there are any)
I did enjoy some pieces by Allevi, like Abbracciami and Sunny Rain by Yiruma. and seemed more unique than the others that i've found.

[49410enrique]

what do you mean by contemporary? and it's hard to describe what you're getting at as much of the music of the past by masters consists of RH melody with LH arpegio?

do you mean 'art music only'? there is a lot of fine and well composed music for film score that is as good or better than many modern 'classical' pieces.

as for one of my favorite contemporary composers, Mashashi Hamauzu is one of my tops. Some of his best work is a set of pieces "Piano Pieces SF2" that only saw limited release and distribution. These shorts are so full of charm and really though they are not shy in their 'impressionistic' inspiration, they definately allow him to stretch his legs a big and showcase what he has to say too.

some of them here (not the full collection). It took me about three years to find the scores, and several weeks to permanently archive them on my system (i worked to hard to find them, I'll be da*#ed if i'll lose them!)

also Kapustin is contemporary and very much as a foot in the 'classical' world, just look at his forms and structures/styles, though he uses a jazz idiom, he is what some of us might call ''jazzical''

the man himself plays one of his impromptus and a prelude

Kaczmarek wrote a really beautiful piece for Finding Neverland,
Piano Variation in Blue

Marianelli wrote some really lovely music for the '05 score to Pride and Prejudice, this opening work is so pretty,

Hisaishi has a great style that I just love.
man those opening chords, love that stuff.

there's lots out there, way more than i posted t his is just some stuff i pulled up on the side while listen to other music right now (its Uematsu this morning).

[proklover]

You should take a look at the Ligeti Etudes...the music is really challenging and interesting as well...
I am currently playing this one :

[asuhayda]

Consider checking out the work of Nobu Uemastu.. He is a famous Japanese composer who has written music for video games like Final Fantasy.  However, his music is brilliant and haunting.  Much of it is not technically challenging, but it has a lot of depth.

[davidjosepha]

The fact that his music sounds good even with the midi tracks in the earlier Final Fantasy games says a lot about his talent. A lot of people can make a beautiful instrument sound beautiful. It's a bit harder to make a crappy "instrument" sound that way.