Not an expert here, but I think you could enjoy the works of Ludovico Einaudi.

Ludovico Einaudi - Time Lapse

I would recommend Arvo Pärt ... great minimalistic music.

Organ music : Gaston Litaize

Orchestral music : Henryk Gorecki, symphony no.3.

One can kinda understand how you could go from Beethoven to enjoying weird modern music because one can easily go from Beethoven to Liszt who was way ahead of his time with some of his stuff, take this for example:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=In0k3aQzbXA
(you say you don't like piano so perhaps your progression went a different path, I'm just rambling here)

And from Liszt one can go to Wagner and from there on it gets interesting because from Wagner you can go in various directions, I'm surprised you mentioned Stravinsky instead of Schönberg because according to the kind of music you like, I would have expected you to be more on Team Schönberg than on Team Stravinsky - in their epic 1 on 1 rap battle that is ;)
I guess you like both, I'm more limited in my taste in that I do recognize Schönberg's skill but it's just not music to my ears.

Going from Liszt to Bartok would be interesting as well, I played the classical guitar a lot as a youngster so I had stuff from Beethoven, Liszt and Bartok on my menu - in that order interestingly. And from there it went to Heitor Villa-Lobos and things get quite alien space interesting, feels quite abstract but it's still harmonious music and not Schönberg style spasms.

I'm more miffed about newer guys like Ligeti, it works well for movies like in 2001 Space Odyssey but when I have to suffer compositions like the following, I'm out:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmCmrZfybPQ&list=PLxauF8Y6mJgJM7K7vS-gC957tECwCQVzG

Regarding 2001 Space Odyssey, I think Strauss has much more impact than Ligeti, at least that's how I feel about the score. You just can't beat the Blue Danube scene, I've seen it dozens of times and think it's one of the greatest uses of classical music in film ever, along with Wagner Ride of the Valkyries in Apocalypse Now.



I'm not familiar with Vermeulen, I'm sure he knows his stuff but this doesn't do anything for me, there's no unity and it sounds like when you're playing two unrelated tracks at the same time. A bit like when a fly is buzzing around in my bedroom and I'm doing the dishes in the kitchen, ok not that bad but what I'm trying to say is that this isn't enjoyable music to my ears. Might work as film music but not as a cohesive composition that I listen to in one piece. The build up takes too long and then doesn't release enough power, another reason why I would use this more as background music fragments for a game/movie rather than sit through it at a concert.
To contrast this piece with an example you already know, Rachmaninoff's Isle of the Dead is a similar piece that slowly and very effectively builds tension but the pay off is much greater with Rach's piece imho, the explosion 8 minutes into this is nothing short of magnificent, and it's one of my all time favorite works of any composer & any period:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N10YZ2Sk3Kg


This I like a lot better than Vermeulen. I didn't know Leif either so another new discovery, thanks. Sounds a bit like he's trying to emulate Holst's Saturn from The Planets - of course that's too tall an order to fill and I think Leif doesn't have the same depth, unlike Vermeulen he has unity but there's still something missing. I do think however that Leif's composition would not only work as film/game music but I'd even enjoy it in concert so don't think I'm bashing it, I sometimes like music that has simplicity, it all depends on my mood and how tired/not tired I am. When I'm tired, I'll even resort to to easy listening stuff like those popular Italian New Classics composers, e.g. Roberto Cacciapaglia. Doesn't challenge the brain, easy to digest and one can do other things while listening. I can't listen to the likes of Rachmaninoff and work because his work commands my full attention.


I can't bear to listen to this one in full length, it's just not music to me, more like background soundscape material. This would be ideal for games like Icewind Dale or the icy dungeons in Act V of Diablo 2 but to listen to this without anything else going on, not my cup of tea.
Here's a badass piece by Sibelius that (imho) does everything John Luther Adams tries to do in Dark Waves but Sibelius shows him how to roll the joint properly, to put it in flowery terms:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4fwuOaHtKA



You do have a most peculiar ear, I must say! To me, this sounds like when the orchestra is tuning their instruments before a concert, nothing more I can get out of this. Quite nervous and eccentric which aren't bad properties but if I want eccentric I'd rather listen to something like this here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49dEdhsNpKE

Anyway, those were interesting suggestions and I made an earnest attempt to broaden my horizon but I think only Jon Leifs makes the cut into my playlist, the other ones are too weirdish for me, guess I have more conservative tastes.

Compositions like the following ones are modern enough for my taste, I even consider Chopin modern so clearly I'm not an ultramodernist :)

Dmitri Shostakovich : Symphony No. 9 in E flat major, Op.70
Scriabin Etude Op 8 No 12
Chopin: Etudes Op.10 & 25

The Shostakovich symphony is hysterical, in my mind I'm seeing Road Runner chased by Coyote and then Coyote walks over the cliff but doesn't fall down but keeps running through the air, that's what's going on inside my head when I lsiten to this.

And since you don't like piano, here's some Rachmaninoff without piano for you, another one of my favorite pieces:
Rachmaninoff: Vespers: Now Let Thy Servant Depart

Definitely seconded. Philip Glass is fantastic, and some of Arvo Pärt's stuff is especially powerful.

In addition to the many, many other fantastic recommendations here (gotta love the taste in music being displayed in this thread -- it's simply awesome) -- I really suggest you go peruse the catalog of ECM Records, especially the ECM New Series. It's where I've discovered a lot of the 20/21st Cen. Classical Music and avante-garde stuff that I've listened to over the years (like Arvo Pärt).

I also recommend Shostakovich if you like really intense stuff. Some of his best stuff came out of his experiences in World War II (like his famous Leningrad Symphony), as well as his eventual disillusionment with Communism in the Soviet Union during the 50s and 60s.

Currently the composer "Jeremy Soule" is in the runnings to be entered into the Classical music hall of fame, he's the composer behind Skyrim. Guild Wars 2, EverQuest and a few others. He's amazing. I'd check him out.

He's also working on his first symphony called "The Northerner" of which I believe he said will have 12 movements.

Count me in as well for Arvo Pärt - I'm quite partial to the Te Deum, but all of it is lovely.

And Glass is marvelous, though he's often mistaken for a pop musician. Along the same lines, I've always loved Michael Nyman, much of whose work was originally in movie soundtracks for Peter Greenaway's films: The Draughtman's Contract and A Zed and Two Noughts are particularly wonderful. He also scored Jane Campion's The Piano, and I have always preferred the piano score to the orchestration.

You can look into the recordings/playlists of the Bang on a Can All-Stars out of New York, which has long explored the odd reaches of the modern post-modern classical world. I'd list names, but why bother - the three Bang on a Can founders, Julia Wolfe, David Lang, and Michael Gordon, are all composers on the po-mo scene, and if you're interested, you can move on from there. The All-Stars' recordings are fascinating, their live performances are entrancing.

Robert Fripp and Brian Eno, of course, are leaders in ambient music and the fusion of pop and classical. Eno's Music for Airports, which Bang on a Can performed live in a few icy modern spaces in NYC, is especially marvelous. I think Bang on a Can recorded it, but I'm not sure.

I've loved what I've heard from Giya Kancheli, who works often with the extraordinary viola player Kim Kashkashian. NOT KARDASHIAN. When I came back from living abroad back in the 90s, I couldn't figure out for a couple of weeks why my favorite lovely viola player was suddenly a celebrity, and then I realized.

Back to Glass: I recently saw a spectacular concert performance of ten modern pianists doing his complete Etudes; if this was recorded, it should be marvelous.

Morton Subotnik's "Touch" and "Silver Apples of the Moon" I can recommend if you'd like to hear some early "classical" electronic music. You probably know the works of Wendy Carlos (Switch-on Bach, etc.) but you might have missed her "Tales of Heaven and Hell" or "Digital Moonscapes". Also the score of Stanley Kubrick's film "Clockwork Orange" is not to be missed, in particular "Timesteps" is a piece that I intimately studied in college (and tried to duplicate!) and the printed score is even available. Perhaps give Edgard Varese' Poeme Electronique a listen.

I believe somebody mentioned Steve Reich, but maybe Terry Riley might deserve a listen? Quite experimental more than "classical" I would say, but nevertheless... interesting. "It's Gonna Rain" is kinda fun, but you might find "In C" a little more adventurous. It helps to know what the performers are doing and the score they're reading.

Also the music of Harry Partch is a lot of fun, like "Castor and Pollux" for example. I believe he created by hand most or all of the instruments he performed with... a lot of percussive instruments (cloud bowls, etc.)

Quite a lot of lovely suggestions so far ;)

I already own a CD-set of Shostakovich's complete symphonies, and they are wonderfull. My grandfather used to sing in a choir, and next to older stuff they sang a lot of part too. I believe he has an ample amount of his works sitting on his shelf, so I'll be sure to check his collection when I visit him next.

This youtube channel apperently has a lot of interesting stuff in it ( collectionCB2 ) perhaps not current day, but the interbellum is a really fascinating period in my opinion.

eg:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YR7mRoVA9BM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-C7FUtlKV8

and this answers one of my other questions I guess...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chronological_list_of_Armenian_classical_composers

I also listened to Rautavaara's Cantus Arcticus, and was pleasantly surprised by it!

I have always wondered why no one makes new "Original" Classical Music pieces that are not associated with plays, movies or games. I mean making a piece by itself. No one made any new pieces after the 40s appearently?

Also my favorite orchestral score is Igor Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring but as performed by Yoel Levi and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFPjFjUonX8