The hardest part may be finding the right performance? If you decide to try the Bartok's, search for my Bartok String Quartet thread at Talk Classical. I was having trouble warming up to the set I bought (wasn't sure if it was the performance or the music, or both) and a very interesting discussion unfolded. Many folks there are composers and musicians who can hear things I can't.
I am fortunate, in the city here one of my friends plays in the symphony orchestra, he owns a music/hifi shop and has helped me collect all kinds of great classical over the years. He will pick out the best version for me to try out. I owe him a great debt when it comes to this genre.
I bought The Works Of Igor Stravinsky box on Sony. 22 CDs all conducted by the composer. Some favorite pieces are The Firebird, Petroushka, Symphonies Of Wind Instruments, Symphony Of Psalms. So much other stuff I'm not familiar with yet.
The box set has its drawbacks. It's a cheapo edition with a skimpy booklet, and the sound isn't the greatest throughout. But it's an historic set, as all of the works are conducted by Stravinsky himself.
Interesting that you listed David Munrow there Nololob, I went through a phase of listening to a lot of the early music he recorded with his Early Music Consort a few years ago - Purcell, Dowland, Praetorius, Telemann etc - he was quite a pioneer of the 'early music' revival.
I don't agree that modern composers go out of their way to ensure that only a tiny minority will enjoy their work. That seems a ludicrous assumption to my mind. I think composers want the audience to enjoy their work
I think if you ask around on CRF Starthrower, you will find that I have somehow unwittingly over time perfected the 'ludicrous assumption' down to a fine art!!...and it frequently earns me a few of these or even worse these But what I was saying, well, it just seems that way to me, very much so in fact, though I confess I am very conservative and unadventurous in my musical tastes these days, and I don't like or really have the time to work too hard at getting to like or understand music like I did when I was younger. I'm not suggesting that modern/20th century composers should go out of their way to just pander to a mass audience with banal, derivative music full of 'good tunes', but as a composer you have to find a middle-ground if you want a) to be taken seriously, b) be accepted as a legitimate artist who is seeking to attract a loyal and devoted audience for his work, and c) not just be written off as a musical fraud whose ideas are just so abstract that they make no sense whatsoever to a wider audience. There are just far too many works that I could use as examples of pieces composed by contemporary composers which are...to most classical music lover's ears at least - just self-indulgent, atonal, inaccessible, unapproachable, ear-ache inducing claptrap from start to finish...most of which, at least in my own experiences of 25 years as a classical concert goer, will just have a 'World Premier' performance... but then are never heard of again, ever!.. such is their lasting appeal with audiences. They obviously must mean something to the composer himself...and like Vaughan Williams said about his 4th Symphony, "I'm not sure that I like it, but it's what I meant"...but I know for a fact that a lot of modern classical music is unfortunately totally inpenetrable even to many professional musicians who are asked to learn and perform it, never mind the poor audience. I suppose we could always take a vote and see who on here actually finds anything of any remote musical merit in, say, these fine works!!!...and these are by no means even the most extreme examples by a long stretch!...
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or even worse these 
But what I was saying, well, it just seems that way to me, very much so in fact, though I confess I am very conservative and unadventurous in my musical tastes these days, and I don't like or really have the time to work too hard at getting to like or understand music like I did when I was younger. I'm not suggesting that modern/20th century composers should go out of their way to just pander to a mass audience with banal, derivative music full of 'good tunes', but as a composer you have to find a middle-ground if you want a) to be taken seriously, b) be accepted as a legitimate artist who is seeking to attract a loyal and devoted audience for his work, and c) not just be written off as a musical fraud whose ideas are just so abstract that they make no sense whatsoever to a wider audience. There are just far too many works that I could use as examples of pieces composed by contemporary composers which are...to most classical music lover's ears at least - just self-indulgent, atonal, inaccessible, unapproachable, ear-ache inducing claptrap from start to finish...most of which, at least in my own experiences of 25 years as a classical concert goer, will just have a 'World Premier' performance... but then are never heard of again, ever!.. such is their lasting appeal with audiences. They obviously must mean something to the composer himself...and like Vaughan Williams said about his 4th Symphony, "I'm not sure that I like it, but it's what I meant"...but I know for a fact that a lot of modern classical music is unfortunately totally inpenetrable even to many professional musicians who are asked to learn and perform it, never mind the poor audience. I suppose we could always take a vote and see who on here actually finds anything of any remote musical merit in, say, these fine works!!!...and these are by no means even the most extreme examples by a long stretch!...
