Louis Andriessen - Symfonie voor losse snaren (1978)

An all-time favorite of mine. Andriessen wrote about this Symphony for Open Strings: "The open-string orchestra consists of twelve soloists. The ensemble has all the chromatic tones over a range of nearly four octaves at its disposal. But for a melody of four consecutive tones four players are required. The work was written for a group of string players at the Conservatory, a kind of teaching project for ensemble playing and counting. As regards the composition technique, I employed symphonic procedures: recurring motives, a developing musical motion, and something like a recapitulation. I had not used techniques like these since the fifties, and they could be my answer to the neo-romantic movement: young composers writing once again for the symphonic orchestra. In this sense the Symphony is ambiguous, using 'symphonic' techniques while an open-string orchestra will never sound like a real symphony orchestra." EDIT: (10 years later! 2021) Louis Andriessen RIP. Still, my favorite Andriessen piece along with "M is for Man, Music, Mozart" (1991), "Il Principe" (1974), "Hoketus" (1975–76), "De Materie Part IV" (1984-88), "Mausoleum" (1979 rev. 1981), "Nuit d'été" (1957), "Anachronie I" (1966–67), "Tapdance" (2013) and "De Staat" (1972–76). And there's a lot I haven't had the chance to explore yet...