Tom Service: Choosing just 50 composers to tell the story of the contemporary classical music scene has been a rich and rewarding experience, but I'm only too aware of the ones that got away
Tom Service: The real legacy of Schnittke’s music is its multidimensional exploration of what musical truth in the 20th century might be, from chaotic polystylism to heartfelt spirituality
The American minimalist has fed bales of hay to his piano but it's his six-hour-plus Well-Tuned Piano that has changed the way we hear music, quite literally, writes Tom Service
The late composer's mastery of a gigantic spectrum of sound, texture and feeling makes his work some of the most special of the late 20th century, writes Tom Service
Tom Service: Benjamin's latest opera features cannibalism, suicide, sex and murder, and could be a watershed moment – unleashing the expressivity of one of Britain's most essential composers
Takemitsu's understated and crystalline compositions combine elements of his own Japanese traditions with the western modernism he loved so much, writes Tom Service
Tom Service: The Frenchman has transformed his astonishing compositional refinement and willingness to take inspiration from other art forms and experiences into works of real emotional immediacy, writes Tom Service
He denied the influence of Poland's turbulent 20th-century history but Lutosławski's music, with its unique textures and vivid harmonies, was always dynamic, eloquent and coherent
A guide to Karlheinz Stockhausen's music
Tom Service: Our contemporary composers series ends with the most divisive figure of them all: Stockhausen