String Quartets On the Web? 228
rueger writes "Lots of people love iTunes. I'm partial to emusic.com. Ubuntu comes pre-equipped for Jamendo and Magnatune. These are great for those of us hunting popular music — but where do lovers of classical music go to find new artists and albums, download music, and generally keep informed, up to date, and satisfied? As my girlfriend put it, 'I used to go to the big classical record stores downtown, but they're gone.' Where do people go to find the newest Ligeti String Quartet recording?"
iTunes doesn't suck (Score:4, Informative)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Certainly if by "Classical" you mean "the usual suspects" or the "popular tunes" (a concept that is certain to make the real connoisseur shudder - not that I am one). Personally, I am a big fan of renaissance lute music, and for a specialised area as that, you have to attend the fora that exist for that sort of things; people there will know where to go and find what you want. Probably.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Magnatune has a pretty OK selection of that sort of thing (renaissance lute music). There are rather many performers of early music compared to listeners, forcing some to try new avenues like Magnatune.
Re: (Score:2)
There are rather many performers of early music compared to listeners
Hmm, this may be because modern and classic (or should I say "newer classic"?) music are more "elitist" in many ways - although most people could probably learn to play it moderately OK-ish, there is a huge gap up to the professional musician. On the other hand, renaissance lute music is more balanced, in a way, in the sense that it is technically quite complex, but still not so difficult that most people couldn't achieve great satisfaction from playing, and the distance up to the very best lutenists doesn'
Re: (Score:2)
It's not classical, and it's even rather cheesy, but consider Ritchie Blackmore's jump into starry-eyed romantic renaissance-inspired music with his wife:
Too many stars for one sky to hold,
some will fall, others are sold (!)
as the fields turn to gold
down at the renaissance faire.
A not-very subtle way of saying he didn't care about popular or critical success anymore, he just wanted to have fun making the music he liked, and go to creative anachronism-events.
It looks to me the basic reasoning is similar in "
Re:iTunes doesn't suck (Score:5, Informative)
IMHO: iTunes is (or at least was ... I stopped looking last year) pretty pathetic. Here's why. Suppose you want to listen to Bach suites for solo cello. Sure, they've got a version or two, but I want a version played by a master on a great instrument. Casals? Check, but old. Rostropovich? Nope, sorry.
Or, I want to listen to something (a lot) more current: Kronos Quartet? Some. Alarm will sound? ok. Bang on a Can? Nope, sorry.
It *does* seem to have both Glenn Gould recordings of Goldberg, which is an improvement (and, yes, they're very different).
This, especially the latter observation is surely connected to the recent /. discussion about use of computer-controlled instruments. It seems to have taken iTunes a very long time indeed to understand that two recordings of the same piece, by different ensembles or performers, using different instruments, under different circumstances, reveal the piece in entirely different ways. They're not the same thing.
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
I'm not a big Glenn Gould fan. Does it have Feltsman's performance of the same piece? What about BWV 1079 and 1080, does it have Feltsman on those? Hector Olivera? What about the Munchinger string ensemble adaptation of both pieces? For that matter, do they have a string ensemble adaptation of the Goldberg variations? What Susanne Lautenbacher recordings do they have of Bach pieces?
Meh. I'll just buy the CDs and rip them. The qualit
Re:iTunes doesn't suck (Score:4, Informative)
Assertion Failed: "Popular Music" (Score:4, Insightful)
Seeing as I'm pressed to find any Top 40 tracks on either website, I would say that they're good for finding obscure music.
(And so we're staying on topic here: I can find tons of classical music on Magnatune. String Quartets aren't out-of-mainstream enough for Magnatune or what?)
Re: (Score:2)
Ligeti string quartets are out-of-mainstream enough for anyone. Most of the people who want to listen to such things are performing it themselves - although in this case, I'm not sure it's possible, since a string quartet requires four people.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Re: (Score:2)
It was tongue in cheek, in case you didn't notice. I know that as modern classical composers go, Ligeti is rather popular. Especially the bits that don't sound like a swarm of depressed bees.
Re: (Score:2)
I am joking, silly. But it's true that the demographic that most consistently listen to modern classical are either
1. Classically trained musicians themselves.
2. Other musicians (mostly computer-oriented)
2. Members of a disappearing upper-class demographic.
Re: (Score:2)
Count me as another banner add for magnatune. If more classical ensambles would distribute through them they would add to the great momentum Magnatune already has, and would likely get more money than any other electronic distribution method given the very generous terms Magnatune gives its artists. Ensambles could also still sell CDs at their concerts and maintain old recording contracts (provided the old company contracts aren't insistent on exclusivity).
some good classical stuff on Magnatune (Score:2)
Depends what you're looking for, of course. The major works are pretty well represented.
Magnatune != Popular Music (Score:2)
eMusic and ClassicalArchives (Score:3, Informative)
Try eMusic. They have tons of classical, and it's probably a bit cheaper than Amazon in some cases. Although there is one annoyance - if a track is longer than a certain length, you might have to download the whole album to get it, which sucks if you already have different versions of the rest.
ie You find an album with a symphony and a overture piece, but you have the symphony already (perhaps a different group, or same group just different album). If the overture is over some length (I don't remember how much, something like 7 mins or so), you'd have to get the symphony anyway, burning 12 credits rather than just one. Before that, you could get some long symphonies (Bruckner...) for just 1 credit per movement.
You can also try ClassicalArchives.com . I used to be a member, but I let it lapse. That was before the new site though, and I've considered going back. (Before, they only had public domain performances, stuff put up by the groups themselves, etc, and a crapload of MIDI)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Ah, OK. I only ever had it as a monthly charge.
Be Careful (Score:2)
I'm kind of partial to Baroque and Renaissance music, especially when I have difficulty sleeping[1]. So I found some obscure corners of the web that had streaming audio and everything was as fine as Vivaldi's spring day.......until the day that my PC caught a nasty virus, probably through Windows Media Player. They didn't offer other streaming formats, so please don't suggest Linux.
If you only download MP3 files directly, things may be a little safer than streaming, but content files can contain malware als
Re: Be Careful (Score:5, Informative)
I'm kind of partial to Baroque and Renaissance music
kmfa.org is a non-commercial Classical station that favors the early stuff more than any other that I've come across.
They're not NPR, so they play music around the clock, but they do have the regular NPR-style begathons to keep donations coming in.
I introduced myself to Beethoven in high school, and my interests have kept creeping earlier and earlier. I'm a big fan of Renaissance music now. Presumably Medieval is next...
Re: (Score:2)
Thanks for the link... the station seems to work well for Opera and VLC on Fedora.
Re: (Score:2)
Boom boom?! :(
Academic libraries (Score:2, Insightful)
My classical collection has been built through the following method:
1. Get borrowing privileges at your local university library. (These are generally available to the general public for a small fee.)
2. Check out classical CDs.
3. Burn and/or rip.
If you are a student or faculty, then you also have access to interlibrary loan for the rare stuff.
EMH Classical Music (Score:2)
Ironically I have been following this topic for a while. Today EMH Classical has launched 6 of their newest and most popular recordings as exclusive iTunes releases. A classical first.
http://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/emh-classical-music/id385488162 [apple.com]
ArkivMusic or Naxos (Score:5, Informative)
For purchasing physical media, I enthusiastically recommend ArkivMusic [arkivmusic.com]. They have a pretty damn good selection, and a really good sorting method where you can browse by composer, conductor, orchestra, soloist, et al., in a very granular fashion. I too checked the local brick-n-mortar stores in Atlanta when the recent re-release of Golijov's Passion of St. Mark hit the shelves only to find no one carrying it. I ended up ordering it from ArkivMusic.
Naxos [naxos.com] also has a pretty decent online presence. You can buy from their comprehensive catalog on their site, as well as pay a subscription fee for unlimited mp3/radio quality streaming off their site from their entire collection. While the performers on Naxos aren't always the highest quality, I'd be willing to bet that Naxos has the most comprehensive Classical catalog of any publisher on the planet. Considering the breadth of their collection, if you just want to try new music, the streaming subscription is a pretty damn good deal, poor to middling quality or not.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Agreed. I find 192Kbps fine for folk/pop/rock but classical definitely needs as high a bit rate as you can manage. I don't hold myself to be any sort of "golden ear" but I was able to hear the difference between 192 and 320 Kbps in an MP3 I made of a Glenn Gould recording; especially when listing with headphones or earbuds and the outside noise is minimized. When listen
Parent is right (Score:2)
The parent is right. Listen to a harpischord recording at 128kbps. It's awful. Or a soprano. If you can't hear any effects of MP3 encoding, you're not trying hard enough. Perhaps 256 or 320 is fine, but Amazon doesn't sell them.
Re: (Score:2)
First off, mp3 is simply not good enough for Classical. If you must buy digital, go for 320 kbps or lame alt-preset-extreme equivalent.
Digital does NOT mean "compressed". "Digital" means that the music is a string of binary numbers representing voltages recorded at fractions of a second (with CDs it's 44k samples per second).
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
If you listened to a Glenn Gould recording, and never heard of Glenn Gould, would you be stunned by it? Wouldn't it be more a wtf-moment at best?
This is a pet peeve of mine... but poin is, a great deal of the value of a work is created by the listeners. We want to share experiences, so we collectively pick a few "winners", explore and experience their character and quirks, and talk about it. There's nothing wrong with it as such. Everyone does it, from the "highest" art forms to the "lowest". It's not snobb
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
I find this whole audiophile thing pretty interesting, especially now something very similar starting to spill over into mainstream photography. JPEGS are out!, we need 16 bit RAW files for out holiday snaps! As a digital artist, I find it disturbing that people are going to let a JPEG artefact (real or imaginary) spoil their enjoyment of a picture: you're looking at it wrong!
I just couldn't let this pass by without comment. Yes, I am a flac kind of a person, and take pride in ripping music with the absolute highest quality. I am also a photographer, and yes, I shoot in raw format. Why? Because I do post-processing. On every photo I take. A good-quality jpeg is indistinguishable from raw until you start doing the least bit of editing. Then the differences will be clear as day and night. Ever tried rescuing an underexposed 8-bit JPEG and then try the same with a 12-bit raw? And d
Re: (Score:2)
I agree with the audiophile bit, but I do shoot RAW for everything (casual or not). The reason is bit depth - JPEG is limited to 8-bits (at least, in almost all implementations of it - there is no reason you couldn't compress at 16-bits using the same technique). With RAW I get all 12 bits that my sensor captures. That means that marginal photos are much easier to rescue in post-processing.
I'd actually argue that studio portraits/etc are where you need RAW the least. In controlled conditions you can get
Re: (Score:2)
Some of us still like good stereo equipment. I grew up as a kid, in a time I guess...where all my friends knew what good reproduction was. A pair of Klipschorns [klipsch.com] still will easily let you hear the difference in quality of recording, when paired with a good quality amp.
I've been slowly building my stereo since I was 12yrs a pieces at a time, upgrading over the years as I foun
Just a thought... (Score:3, Informative)
Re: (Score:2)
http://www.calderquartet.com [calderquartet.com]
CBC radio 2 (Score:3, Informative)
Re: (Score:2)
Come on man...think globally for a second. The CBC is not even known beyond Canadian borders! Sheesh!
Re: (Score:2)
CBC radio has far too much chatter between songs. If I want to listen to classical I want to listen to music and not the entire history of the piece in question.
Oops -- Please Stand By (Score:2)
Title: Please Stand By
32 kbps 16 KHz
Automated message that keeps looping every 30 seconds:
While some ethnic or dream music is playing in the background, almost sounds like Enya.
I'm located in Tennessee, US.
also KDB Re:CBC radio 2 (Score:2)
Also check out KDB Radio at kdb.com. Monthly advance listings are where to look. Pretty good signal for internet radio. Annoying plugin, but i beleive that's an acceptable trade, see this next bit:
Here you go: http://kdb.com/musicsched.htm [kdb.com]
sure, it's "programmed music" i.e. to fit their day plan / style, but i've never heard an interruption to any piece.
This is
a heretical suggestion (Score:4, Interesting)
Re: (Score:2)
This is actually a good suggestion (not just funny, mods). There is in fact a lot of extremely rare stuff on youtube.
Re: (Score:2)
I think that if you're looking for concepts, youtube is a great place to look. If you're looking for execution, it is a lousy place to look. Plus, if you do actually find anything you want to keep you get to try to extract the FLV and extract its audio track so that you can listen to it on something other than your web browser. What fun - especially if you have to transcode it (either to another format (lossy), or to FLAC (lots of space and most players don't support it))...
It's a bit grim (Score:5, Insightful)
... if you're not in the US, and you don't use a Mac or Windows PC. Amazon does not sell MP3s to Australians; iTunes is Mac/Windows only. Personally, I've had most success with emusic.com, but as the querier has noted, their range is limited.
I really miss being able to walk into a store with a large classical range, have a listen, chat with knowledgeable staff, and have the chance of a serendipitous discovery. The web can theoretically provide the equivalent and more besides, but is hobbled by overly restrictive domains and copyright paranoia.
Re: (Score:2)
Only what's hip and popular is represented well in web commerce. Classical music, being this obscure genre of music that nobody really listens to anymore, gets marginalized. There's just not enough demand to justify trying to negotiate with the publishers to offer any more than lip service. If you want a particular piece (or movement thereof) that's relatively popular, most places may have some obscure recording. But if you're looking for a particular performance, which classical music aficionados tend to d
Deutsche Grammophon (Score:5, Informative)
wait, there's more... (Score:3, Informative)
DG did an early digital (Philips) recording of Tchaikovsky's 4,5 and 6th as performed by the Berliner Philharmoniker and conducted (of course) by Von Karajan. This was, for me, "the" recording ever since I was a teen and first heard it. Anyway, you can buy even those recordings on their site. It's not as if they just have new stuff, or just have giant classics (although that recording was important in many ways) - they've been moving toward having EVERYTHING in their catalog online. And once you buy it, it'
Naxos Music Library (NML) (Score:2)
Local classical radio station (Score:2)
I listen to WQXR [wqxr.org], a classic station native to New York City. Its my portal to classical music and they feature a great variety. Their website has a live stream.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Same here, except for KQAC [allclassical.org] streaming 24-7 from beautiful Portland, Oregon. And these two aren't the only ones. There are a whole bunch [classicalwebcast.com] of live streams that one can listen to while connected. In many ways, streaming has brought back classical, jazz, and other musical formats that, a few years ago, were in danger of being lost when public radio was transitioning wholesale to news. HD allowed alternate streams to be played over the air and streaming them to the internet connected them to a whole bunch of l
And not emusic? (Score:3, Informative)
Trance music? (Score:2, Offtopic)
How about trance music? I only have http://www.newgrounds.com/audio/list.php?which=genre&id=11&order=score&sortorder=desc&page=1 [newgrounds.com] for homemade audio tunes. What about commercial trance music videos? :(
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Thanks. For music videos, I meant free ones to watch online/download. I used to do it all the time like in the late 1990s/90s. :(
Oh Dear... (Score:2)
My fiancee is going to hate you. I go through periods of different genres of music. She dreads my classical kicks, and I have a feeling this thread will certainly set one off.
Re: (Score:2)
Call off the engagement while you have the chance.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Ah yes, I can see the conversations with our son now.
"Daddy, why aren't you and Mommy married?"
"Well, you see son, every 6-8 months I listen to classical music for a few weeks and Mommy doesn't like it very much." ;-)
Passionato (Score:5, Informative)
Mine is ... (Score:2)
France Musique.
They have exactly what I'm looking for, with lots of not-necessarily-on-the-shelf, mostly classical music
http://mp3.live.tv-radio.com/francemusique/all/francemusique-32k.mp3 [tv-radio.com]
There is also a high-quality stream; but my place of work has a lousy connection, and so has my ISP.
YMMV
Classical streamed FM radio: www.kusc.org (Score:2)
I'm a big fan of KUSC (http://www.kusc.org), particularly their evening show. Jim Svejda does some pretty obscure stuff at times, and I find his interviews and commentary particularly insightful. Too bad he's on so late on east coast time. Also for really avant-garde stuff, there's John Schaefer's New Sounds on WQXR (turned me onto minimalism back in the early 80s.)
But at home, I've ripped my CD collection and stream via iTunes, Airport Express/AirTunes and an FM transmitter with enough power to reach th
Re: (Score:2)
I'm tempted to make some lame joke about Sackbutts, but I suspect that I already did. How-evar... I'm a recent convert to the wonderful sound of Citterns... I don't suppose you know which shady alleys might serve my deviant tastes in music?
Re: (Score:2)
http://magnatune.com/ [magnatune.com] has already been mentioned, they have some good Early Music recordings. Check out the folk stuff, too, there's some good crossover material.
Many classics (Score:4, Insightful)
It is not just the Mozart and Bach type of classic that is missing. Things like Dixieland jazz and Rockabilly also are quite hard to come by. Our musical heritage is being lost. A lot of this loss is caused by the copyright nuts. If they would let outfits like Stream Tuner alone much music could be preserved. As it is many of the tunes could not be properly recorded when originally created as machines did not exist that could do the job. So what we are left with are people in the 1950 era playing the old tunes and re-issuing that music. That creates that copyright nightmare all over again.
Classics Online (Score:2)
Streamtuner? (Score:2)
Dude, just (re)search. (Score:2)
Honestly, find a few labels that carry the stuff you know you like, and sign up for their newsletter or just check the release schedule on occasion. The other alternative, as someone mentioned, was to find a group of similar minded individuals and join their forum (Google can help you with that).
Aside from that, you can try the usual streaming suspects (last.fm and Pandora, etc..) but you might also try some off the wall streamers like Soma.fm [somafm.com], etc.
Is MySpace still an e-venue for bands trying to do promotio
DRM-free from Deutsche Grammophon (Score:2)
Deutsche Grammophon has a DRM-free web store (predictably at www.deutschegrammophon.com). Once you register with them, you can always go back to your account and re-download stuff you've bought, and the content is delivered as high-bitrate MP3s with no DRM, so you can move them between devices without difficulty.
I am not affiliated with these folks, I'm just a satisfied customer, and also slightly mystified that a DRM-free music store isn't more widely known.
Other sources (Score:2)
I don't expect to find classical on the net any more than at most record stores. The demand's too small, and if they have any at all, it's usually by crappy little eastern Europe orchestras at bargain prices.
If you're anywhere near a big city, public libraries often have tastefully chosen recordings; often they show little wear. There are also quite a few classical stations listed in iTunes; many of them have PD's who know their music. MN Public Radio has long had an excellent station.
Once I hear something
Public Radio (WXXI - Rochester, NY) (Score:2)
Granted, this is a local public radio station in upstate NY, but you can stream it anywhere. WXXI is one of the vanishing breed of predominantly Classical radio stations here in the US. They have some jazz programs, and a little bit of news (and you have to put up with the occasional Public Radio fundraisers), but it is probably 90% high quality classical music programming: http://streaming.wxxi.org/fm-hi [wxxi.org]
(The station has been around for something like 40 years, so it's the station I grew up on!)
Classical music aggregator (Score:2)
Not "pre-" equipped (Score:2)
Ubuntu is equipped. Not pre-equipped.
Pre- turns a noun into an adjective. "Civil War" is a noun. Pre-Civil War is an adjective that we can use to describe things from before the Civil War. Pre means "chronologically before" not "in advance". Heated is not an event, but if it were... then a pre-heated oven would be ROOM TEMPERATURE. Unless it was a gas oven and the pilot light gave it some additional warmth.
Descriptivist excuse making in 3... 2....
Re: (Score:2)
Re:The only feasible explanation... (Score:5, Insightful)
OK, fine, I'm sure you know more about geek-related IT stuff than the poster, but how much do you really know about classical music? Not much, judging by your post. If you're looking for a recording of the Pachelbel canon and you find a recording by the Upper Slobovnia Symphony Orchestra and are happy, you are probably not qualified to post a response. While Amazon has a very good selection of CDs for purchase, their mp3 selection is much more limited. iTunes is completely worthless if you know enough to prefer certain recordings over whatever single version they have to offer. archivmusic.com has a limited mp3 selection but it may be preferable to the bigger stores and their comments are always worth reading.
And this whole post reminds me of why I really don't like slashdot these days. It's full of arrogant young dbags like yourself that comment on something they know virtually knowing about yet speak with the authority of Kernighan discussing proper C syntax. I hope you all get through puberty someday and realize your limitations.
Re:The only feasible explanation... (Score:5, Informative)
As a student studying classical music at a conservatory I can testify to the OP's plight. You may be able to find tons of recordings on iTunes of Beethoven's 5th symphony, but you may not be able to find a recording of the Tomasi Bassoon Concerto. Also, classical musicians and listeners often don't just want any recording of a given work. A lot of the recordings you find on iTunes are done by 2nd-tier European radio symphonies. Often people look for recordings done by specific orchestras or even specific historic recordings. My teacher has collected 33 different recordings of the opening to the Rite of Spring, 17 of them conducted by Stravinsky, 2 of them are rehearsals featuring Stravinsky singing the opening bassoon solo.
If you're lucky enough to be a student at a university with a good music school, you can get access to a huge selection of lesser-marketed recordings. I'm not a copyright lawyer so I can't say if ripping them is exercising fair use under the guise of education or not. If you're in a major city, your public library is also likely to have a large selection.
If that fails and you're looking for recordings that feature some sort of instrumental solo work, a Google search for the piece may turn up a performer who's recorded it but may not be actively marketing their album. Most likely, they'd be happy to get an e-mail from someone interested in listening to their music. Some may even mail it to you for free, just excited to have some publicity. Also, most instruments have their own societies with mailing lists. For example, bassoonists are part of the International Double Reed Society. A question to the society about where to find a recording may yield positive results. Also if you're having trouble finding something, there's a good chance other members of the society are too.
If you're looking for works by an obscure living composer, e-mailing the composer can be an option. Casually asking William Bolcom or John Williams for their music is an exercise in futility, but a lot of composers are struggling to get recognition. If their piece doesn't have a studio recording, chances are they made a recording of one of the performances for their records and would be happy to send it your way.
A last resort would be the Naxos Music Library. A lot of universities have subscriptions to the online database. It can be hard to find the portal on the university's website to connect to it however. If you're not a student, then it's only available with a subscription fee for streaming classical music. They have an incredible selection, however.
Finally, if you've ascertained with complete certainty that there exists no recording at all of the piece and it means that much to you...COMMISSION ONE! I'm dead serious. As a music student I can testify that there are oodles of young, talented classical musicians out there who'd love to take on a project such as that. If you live near a good music school, that's where I'd start. Faculty are a good place to ask about putting together a project as they can help with recruiting. Generally they'll pass on your offer to their students and other relevant faculty, provided you make your case well why this given piece should be recorded. Students may do this for free, but you're more likely to get the creme of the school if you offer to pay them. Music students will play on the (relative) cheap. Figure a bare minimum of $15-20 a service per musician plus $5 for every hour that service lasts past the first hour. You can reduce that with the promise of food.
In summary, finding classical music isn't necessarily easy, particularly if you want to be particular about it. However, it is possible provided you're willing to be outgoing and connect with the community.
Re: (Score:2)
IANAL but I don't think students have an exemption from obeying copyright laws - don't the RIAA go after college students quite often?
Re: (Score:2)
If you happen to live near a public university with a good music school, you should be able to at least listen to the music at the library, even if you can't check anything out. You won't be able to rip it, though, since it's likely they'll put it in a player behind the desk and direct you to a listening station. /worked at the music library in college
Re: (Score:2)
That depends on the library. I've been to libraries with dedicated listening sections and then there are libraries like mine that will let you take CDs home (LPs have to stay.) I don't know this for certain, but I suspect that the policy is based more on the fact that the library is concerned about resources going missing. In the case of the library where I attend, forcing people to listen to recordings in the building would be completely impractical. I estimate they circulate at least a hundred albums on a
Re: (Score:2)
According to this [wikipedia.org] educational purposes are covered under the fair use doctrine. As a music student I could legitimately claim that copying library CDs is a necessary part of my studies. However, I am not a lawyer either so I don't know how well that claim would hold up in court, especially with the RIAA salivating at the mouth just thinking of eliminating the fair use doctrine.
Likewise, I don't know if a non-music student could stand by that claim in court. Luckily, a lot of classical recordings, particula
Re: (Score:2)
A last resort would be the Naxos Music Library.
I've gotten a lot of mileage out of Naxos. Their quality isn't the absolute best, but its pretty good, and their prices are great.
A bigger issue for me is finding new music. If there's any still being written that I would find compelling, I'm not aware of it. The Sibelius violin concerto is the most modern piece that I really like. Mostly I listen to Bach, but even though I've got about 10 hours of his stuff, I've heard it so many times I've become bored with it. Same with Beethoven. Same scene with ro
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
The stuff you are seeing on the iTunes weekly single is most likely "crossover" classical like The Three Tenors and so on. Real classical works tend not to be 5 minute singles. They tend to run from about an hour to 2.5 hours.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
You probably haven't even tried to find a specific recording have you? Classical music as a few more variables in complexity than other music because (generally speaking) anyone can perform the work, and even the same ensemble with a change of conductors can produce a drastically different recording. The director, ensemble, & composer all add to the equation for what defines "a recording" and as mentioned above, even a soloist recording the same works after a time span can offer a different interpreta
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
But in practice, for classical music I only buy CDs anyway. Assuming they aren't badly recorded, they are pretty much always superior to the more common levels of audio compression. Classical music has a habit of exposing defects in compression much more than most "p
Re: (Score:2)
Forget the ipod for classical. I much prefer a music player with FLAC support and a decent pair of ear canal headphones. My Sennheiser CX 270 set are nice and I've managed to listen to a quiet note with a metro (subway) screeching into the stop with no trouble.
Just.. don't wear them while driving.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
(citation needed)
Re: (Score:2)
But what's the use if their DSPs noticeably distrort sound when playing at 80% volume or more (which is how I sometimes listen to classical :)
Well, it sounds like the only option available in that circumstance is not to listen to it on an ipod.
I'm not enough of an audiophile to suggest spending a fortune on a stereo but regardless of the formats they support, MP3 players have a tendency to sacrifice audio quality in their quest for portability. Get a good stereo, get a good set of headphones and blow out your eardrums.
Re: (Score:2)
Makes sense... Exactly my point.
Ohhh... I thought your point was that you were expecting Formula 1 performance from a station wagon. In that case, just put Rockbox on it or get better headphones and an amp.
Re: (Score:2)
Find yourself a proxy within the US or another market where it's offered. Of course they might check the credi card number too, so you may still be out of luck.
I've moved to australia, but only recently so I still have a uk card to use, and a friend over there with a box I can ssh into for a proxy. It's a pain, but it works.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Because artists pay for all the studio time, recording cos
Re: (Score:2)
Let me add fuel to this.
The only reason HDTracks sells MP3 is for compatibility, as far as I can tell. The MP3s they sell are 320kb/s. Likewise, they only sell AIFF for compatibility with iPods etc. Obviously, you could play MP3 on an iPod, but it won't be lossless, even at 320kb/s. AIFF is lossless, but it is also uncompressed.
That said, it seems as though the format they want to sell is FLAC. FLAC is available on all of their offerings at 44.1kHz/16bit, and, as WScottC pointed out, lots of their mate
Re: (Score:2)
This seems like a good time to plug my lady's brother's group, Eighth Blackbird [eighthblackbird.com]. They're a chamber music group that attempts to do only pieces by living composers. Sometimes they do a piece by a dead guy but he's usually from the last century or so. And if that's the kind of music you're in to, it seems a shame to miss the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music [cabrillomusic.org], August 1 - 15, which occurs mostly at the Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium. I personally hate classical (mom made me listen to a lot of it as a child a