Top 21st Century Piano Pieces
With such a vast database of music on the internet, it can be extremely difficult to discover stand-out pieces in the modern concert piano repertoire.
Here, I’ll filter through the noise and take you through some of my top picks for piano pieces written in the 21st century.
Before we begin, let me address the obvious issue with writing about the “top” 21st century piano pieces.
When I use the word “top”, I refer to pieces that stand out to me as both historically significant, and high in compositional integrity. This said, these are just my opinions; treat this post as a stepping stone into potentially new repertoire, or just the opening to a new discussion around 21st century piano music.
Since we’re on the subject of 21st century piano music, click here to check out my 2021 work for solo piano, 8 Sketches for Piano. The piece explores many of the subjects I dive into in this blog, so be sure to go check it out if you’re at all curious!
Let’s get started and jump into the first piece on my list: Jubilee I for Piano, by Magnus Lindberg.
1. Jubilee I for Piano – Magnus Lindberg (2000)
Without looking at the score, close your eyes and listen.
Try to imagine the colors floating around, bouncing from one end of the piano to the other.
It’s easy to look at a score of higher complexity such as this and get distracted by the constant meter changes and rows of beams; it can often look more like a multi-layered mathematical equation than a felt piece of music.
This said, Lindberg’s Jubilee has far from the most complicated score I’ve come across (if you want complicated, check out the work of new-complexity composers Michael Finnissy and Brian Ferneyhough).
Still, it bears enough disjunct motion to put the pianist/listener in a state of high energy and attentiveness.
The reason this short piece of Lindberg’s is on this list is that it seems to be Lindberg’s attempt at packing his range of musical characters into a short form, and in doing so, takes the pianist through such an expansive journey of color all within 2 minutes.
It doesn’t just feel like a jubilee because of its name and dedication to the birthday of Pierre Boulez; it’s rapid development and high energy musically communicate a celebration on their own.
2. Six Piano Études – Unsuk Chin (1995-2003)
Now, let’s take a look at another colorful sound world that evolves over 20 minutes, rather than 3.
I’m trying to only include pieces that were written in the year 2000 or after, but given that the final revisions to the majority of Chin’s Études were completed after 2000, I’m going to let the piece slide. I’ll also note that Chin intended to write 12 total études, but has saved the last 6 for when she feels her style has matured a bit more.
Chin’s Études are remarkable displays of her ability to invent incredibly diverse musical environments and express clear contrast.
They are also incredibly reminiscent of the music of one of her most notable mentors, György Ligeti. Specifically, Ligeti’s 18 Études for Solo Piano, which also carry this multiplicity of colors that Chin has managed to emulate so well.
The reason these Études stand out to me overall, however, is that they feel like a natural continuation of the experimentation and expression of the 20th century.
Chin’s sound worlds, diverse and dramatic as they are, feel like the perfect way to wrap up the previous century’s developments and step into the 21st century with a fresh palette.
3. Ballade – Kaija Saariaho (2005)
I’ve been inclined to add two of Saariaho’s pieces to this list; not just because I think Saariaho is one of the greatest living musical minds, which I do, but also because these pieces feel so entirely pianistic in character while feeling so relevant in the modern pianist’s repertoire.
The first of these pieces is her Ballade. In her program note, she claims,
“In this short piece I wanted to write music with a melody that grows out of the texture before descending into it again; a work that constantly shifts from a complex, multi-layered texture to concentrated single lines and back again.”
Every time I listen to this work I am entranced by this relationship with the melody and the accompaniment she describes.
In one moment, a melody sings out, then in another, it gets overtaken by a wash of color and swept into the resonant array that rings out.
And all while creating this engaging narrative, the piece still feels entirely virtuosic. This is up there on my bucket list of pieces to learn.
4. Prelude – Kaija Saariaho (2007)
The second piece of Saariaho’s feels much less melodically based than her Ballade, but her focus on texture, repetition, then subduing those expectations makes this piece so entrancing.
The music is derived from her song cycle Quatre Instants, so while the material is not wholly new, it is still super effective in bringing the pianist into a seductive sound world, held together by quarter note triplets and dramatic gestures.
5. Two Thoughts About The Piano – Elliot Carter (2007)
Carter’s Two Thoughts About The Piano is an interesting study on the ability to express great musical drama with one singular line.
It is also a great exploration in space, and using space to build character and drama.
Here is a quote from Carter regarding the origins of the piece:
“The many meanings silences can express in musical discourse challenged me to use some of them in Intermittences. This title was suggested by “Intermittences du coeur” one of the chapters in Marcel Proust’s novel. It is a short work that also uses many different piano sounds to convey its expressive meanings. When Pierre-Laurent Aimard, who performs so eloquently, asked me to write a piece for him, I became obsessed with the idea of a fast one-line piece with no chords. It became a continuous chain of notes using different spacings, accents, and colorings, to produce a wide variety of expression.”
For further listening, check out Augusta Read Thomas’ 2017 piece by the same name that responds to Carter’s musical character.
6. Nunataks (Solitary Peaks) – John Luther Adams (2007)
And now we get to the “slowest” of the pieces on this list, that being John Luther Adams’ Nunataks (Solitary Peaks).
This is a piece that I feel compliments the before-mentioned pieces super well. This is because while the previous pieces (except for maybe the first movement of the Carter) use notes to convey development, this piece seems to use the opposite. This piece lets the long space between the chords convey the atmosphere, and when the music leans into a large cluster of fortissimo chords, you get dragged into the space even more.
You cannot discuss the music of John Luther Adams without discussing the role of nature, and our miniscule observation of it.
Adams notably won the 2014 Pulitzer Prize and Grammy award for his 40-minute orchestral meditation Become Ocean, which deals with space in a similar manner as Nunataks.
It takes its time, working on a scale that feels larger than life.
This is Adams’ intention. He wants you to feel like you’re at the base of a vast mountain rage, or in this case, a giant glacier, looking up at the immeasurable grandeur of it.
You feel so small, yet so at peace knowing that those mountains are almost watching over you.
7. Mazurkas – Thomas Adès (2009)
Adès’ 3 Mazurkas are fascinating attempts to look back at one of the most significant musical forms in the Western Classical tradition.
He approaches the characters of all 3 in a way reminiscent of Chopin’s style, just pushing the material into Adès’ typical mystical sound worlds that dance around with the idea of tonality.
Each mazurka attempts to bring out a new characteristic of the Polish folk genre, with the first dealing with the dance-like energy, the second heavily quoting “accompaniment-like” figures, and the third highlighting a melancholy of sorts.
All in all, Adès’ Mazurkas feel remarkably relevant for the modern pianist due to this historical self-awareness.
8. 12 Études for Piano – Richard Danielpour (2012)
Similar to Chin’s Études, Richard Danielpour’s 12 Études for Piano are dynamic musical adventures.
But unlike Chin’s relatively more contained approach, Danielpour breaks his own boundaries to take the pianist/listener through as many different sound worlds as one can fit in a nearly 40 minute suite.
These Études manage to be enticing through each one, and when you think Danielpour can’t find a new sonic direction to take the music, he proves you wrong.
9. The Arching Path – Christopher Cerrone (2016)
Architecture is, for many, one of the most personally felt art forms.
It’s the space we inhabit, the space we work, live and recreate in.
This said, when an architect comes along and designs a work that feeds off our organic way of life, rather than countering it, it has the ability to feel like a natural part of our ecosystem.
Ponte Sul Basento, a bridge by Sergio Musmeci in Potenza, Italy, feels very organic in its approach to slope.
This is the bridge that served as the inspiration for Chistopher Cerrone’s solo piano piece, The Arching Path.
Cerrone’s sort-of post-minimalist ode to Musmeci’s design feels remarkably natural.
He responds to the relationship between the human structure and the natural form it juxtaposes, that being the water, but it never feels academic or overly intellectual.
Cerrone implements these abstract concepts into a piece of music that feels sophisticated, yet very, very human.
10. Rimsky or La Monte Young – Louis Andriessen (2017)
Last on my list is the late Louis Andriessen’s Rimsky or La Monte Young, a short 2 minute etude that feels like a time capsule to the Baroque Era, while still maintaining its distinct Andriessen-esc quirky nature.
Conclusion
From the paced, spatial music of John Luther Adams’ Nunataks to the expansive detail of Unsuk Chin’s Études, the piano pieces of the 21st century have had a lot to offer.
Looking for more piano repertoire from the 21st century?
Feel free to click here, where you’ll find an expansive collection of piano pieces I wrote in 2021 called 8 Sketches for Piano.
The music follows a contemplative programme, and has been described as “striking”, containing an “interesting complexity of texture” by critics following the album’s release.
