Hello! New complexity is one of those tags the composers themselves hate (see also minimalism), but like most tags it's actually a useful handle for anyone trying to find a way in. It's not necessarily something that gets tagged though, so maybe worth looking by composer first. Some recommmendations:
Brian Ferneyhough:
works for solo instruments This is a good CD intro to some of the solo pieces (Unity Capsule, Time and Motion Study I+II, Kurze Schatten, Bone Alphabet etc.) that really open s up the extreme virtuosity of Ferneyhough. There's also a recording of chamber works, on Montaigne (a good label to look out for in general for great modern classical stuff). I really like Etudes transcendentales, which I'm going to write about on the blog (one day), and the String Quartet is a great idea as well, in which the four instruments never really work independently as in normal quartets, but are composed as a single unit, a sort of 'super-instrument' as Ferneyhough calls it. I don't really like his vocal stuff, tbh, so perhaps avoid that at first, I think something really big like Carceri invenzioni is also worth tracking down on recording.
Michael Finnissy:
Much more approachable composer than Ferneyhough, I think (but both are worth your time). For a start, Finnissy often does (extremely varied and complex) reworkings of other music - Gershwin, folk song, etc - so you can get a hook on what he's doing that much easier. I think his piano stuff is great; he's an excellent pianist himself, so anything with him on I can recommend. Ian Pace is another pianist to follow up - I think he has (or is) recorded Finnissy's massive The History of Photography in Sound, which is a monumental work, one of the most important pieces for piano in years. Pace is a performer (and occasional composer himself, though I don't think he's recorded) who you can't go wrong with if complexity is your thing - he's pretty much without peer on this stuff. I haven't heard Finnissy's The Greatest Hits of All Time, but I love the title. Again, I don't know so much about his choral music, but CDs of that are easily available, so might be worth a try. Like a lot of the 'new complexity' lot, he's politically motivated, and this feeds into his music - Ferneyhough is too, but in a much more rarified academic way.
Richard Barrett:
His orchestral NO! got premiered recently and is an interesting work - vaguely Iraq war inspired - don't think it's been recorded, but it will soon be surely. Something like Vanity, only 4.99
from NMC records is worth a look. Actually, NMC is a really good label to go to as well - most of the complexity lot are British, and most have recordings with NMC. Where Argo are the experimental/minimalist side of British composition, NMC are definitely the complexity/modernism side. I have no money at the moment, but when I do, a sweep of their catalogue is in order. They do release cheap samplers, which might be worth trying, but the snippets are usually frustratingly short, and never complete pieces, or even movements.
In vaguely similar vein, see also:
Christopher Fox (he's associated with the group, but is musically pretty different),
Chris Dench,
Roger Redgate,
Gerald Barry,
James Dillon (see also
Montaigne recording). The one piece by Fabrice Fitch I've heard I really loved, so
this recording might be worth a punt too.
A good piano sampler is Ian Pace's recording
Tracts, which includes Barrett and Fox pieces;
this compilation is a bit more varied (Knussen and Burrell don't really fit the mould), but worth checking out too.
Hope that gets you started, anyway...
