Buying Western Classical Music

Which is the single most important musical composition of the 20th century?

The music which defines one hundred years in the life and times of our planet. For me there would be half a dozen candidates. The obvious ones being Symphony No.6 by Gustav Mahler and Le Sacre Du Printemps by Igor Stravinsky. But the knock out punch was delivered by Dmitri Shostakovich in the 3rd movement of Symphony No.8. I have not read any critical notes about what this music is supposed to signify. I would like to go by my personal reaction to this music. For me this music is like a river of fear. Dread. Anxiety. Anxiety is the defining psychological state of the 20th century. It is with us all the time. We try to brush it away by immersing ourselves in work, pleasure and hifivision. But it is always there. It follows us like a shadow. And it will follow us till the...

Shostakovich's 8th Symphony by Mravinsky, mov. 3 - YouTube
 
Awesome conducting by Mravinsky. I love that old school way of conducting and wish we had more such conductors nowadays!
I really like your comment about Anxiety being the defining psychological state in the 20th C. Of course, Bernstein wrote his famous Age of Anxiety symphony, which was based on an W H Auden poem. (As an aside, perhaps my most favourite poet of the little poetry that I have read). The poem also bears the same name and, I understand, was his last and longest work. It is book-length and it won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. But it is a difficult read and understandably has fallen into neglect.
 
Staxx

Pierre Boulez. Wilhelm Furtwangler. Yevgeny Mravinsky. Kiiril Kondarshin. Carlos Kleiber. Legends!

I do listen to Bernstein but he has never been among my favorites. Among the present day conductors I really like Osmo Vanska. His Sibelius recordings with the Lahti Symphony Orchestra on BIS are outstanding.

Incidentally I have incorporated some music from Symphony No 8/Movement 3 by Shostakovich on a slideshow of my photographs of the Rock Garden. I intend to exhibit the slideshow and photographs in all the metros. The material is ready but I need to do plenty of networking before it actually happens. And if it dosen't happen then I will just upload it on You Tube. The internet is the platform of the masses :)

I couldn't afford 'real' actors so I have used the sculptures at Rock garden as my actors. I intend to use a quote by my favorite writer as the introduction to the slideshow.

And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music.

? Friedrich Nietzsche
 
I have a huge collection of western classical music in brand new condition. They are all original CD's bought in 2012-2013 from Amazon and Rhythm House. I am more into photography these days and listen to music for barely an hour a day. Most of my present collection consisting entirely of western classical music has never been played or played only a few times. The CD's cover virtually the entire canon of western classical music from 1650-1950. This was the third time I built such a collection (Once on cassette and twice on CD's). The present collection was made after extensive research of the best recordings of each work in terms of performance and/or audio quality. Looking for a collector interested in buying the entire collection or a major chunk of the collection :)
 
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