Contemporary composers. Please help.


Hello,

I would greatly appreciate any help with contemporary (20-21st century) classical music. At this point my favorites are:
Alfred Shnittke, Arvo Part, Steve Reich.
Glass, Adams, Xenakis are not in that heavy rotation.
Tried Shoenberg and Stockhousen, so far they are beyond my understanding.

Thank you,
Sergey.
lsd13
I remember starting with Ligeti Edition 7 chamber music, still one of my favorites. Ligeti Edition 3 works for piano is probably my all time favorite. I was able to see this performed live and that was a real treat (it took a world class pianist a year to learn to play these pieces) Also as far as larger orchestral works try out the Ligeti Project volume 2. These could be considered a little more difficult but once you get Ligeti a little bit and like it you can't not like these too. The Ligeti Project recordings are very good sounding too. If you really liked his stuff and you got all the Editions 1-7 and Project discs you would have it mostly covered.
Try Gorecki especially his Symphony #3. Dawn Upshaw's performance gets a lot of deserved play but my favorite is with Zolia Kilanowicz and the Polish National Orchestra.

Ludovico Einaudi may be more pop but his Divenire CD is a favorite as is Jim Chappelle's Dusk for solo piano
Thanks everybody!
If it's not too much to ask, could you guys name some albums of recommended composers.
Thanks again,
Sergey.